THE
FLINTLOCK
Its Origin, Development, and Use
Torsten Lenk
Translated by G.A. Urquhart
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MARIN LE BOURGEOYS
Painter. Inventor. Died 1634.
THE FLINTLOCK
ITS ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT, AND USE
Torsten Lenk
Translated by G.A.. Urquart
Edited byJ.F. Hayward
s
Skyhorse Publishing
Copyright © 2007 by Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
Originally Published in Sweden in 1939.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent
of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be ad-
dressed to: Skyhorse Publishing, 555 Eighth Avenue, Suite 903, New York, NY 10018.
www.skyhorsepublishing.com
10 987654321
ISBN-10: 1-60239-012-6 (paperback)
ISBN-13: 978-1-60239-012-6 (paperback)
The Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data is available on file.
Printed in Canada
List of Contents
EDITOR S INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Vll
chapter one Definition. Terminology. Types
of locks, general. Literary references to the
snaphance and flintlock. i
chapter two The immediate precursors of
the flindock, the 'Mediterranean lock' and
the Netherlands snaphance. 16
chapter three The origin of the flintlock.
The flintlock with separate buffer on the
plate. 26
chapter four The French flindock with
flat surface, 1620-60. 41
chapter five The distribution of flintlock
manufacture up to the middle of the seven-
teenth century. 5 3
chapter six Mid seventeenth century flint-
lock arms with relief decoration. 61
chapter seven Pistol butts and pommels
during the earlier half of the seventeenth
73
chapter eight The Thuraine and Le Hol-
landois style. 79
CHAPTER NINE
style.
The Classical Louis XIV
93
century. Ivory stocked pistols.
chapter ten The Berain style. French flint-
lock firearms of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. 109
chapter eleven The decoration of French
firearms during the earlier half of the
seventeenth century. 121
chapter twelve Pattern books and decor-
ation during the middle of the seventeenth
century. 1 3 5
chapter thirteen Pattern books and decor-
ation from the Classical Louis XIV to the
Empire style. 146
chapter fourteen Signatures.
sources and bibliography
appendices (one and two)
INDEX
157
*59
167
*79
Editor's Introduction
Dr Torsten Lenk, the author of this
book, was born at Varnum in Sweden on
29 August 1 890. He died in Stockholm
on 13 December 1957, a few months after his
retirement from the office of Director of the
Swedish Royal Armoury which he had held
since 1944. He joined the Royal Armoury and
took up the study of firearms in 1924, and this
book was the result of fifteen years of research.
It was, in fact, his doctoral thesis ; but even by
Scandinavian standards, which are exception-
ally high in this respect, The Flintlock is an
altogether masterly work.
Just over a quarter of a century has passed
since the first publication of The Flintlock in
1939, and since the end of the Second World
War an ever increasing spate of books on the
history of firearms has been published on both
sides of the Adantic. As a rule the original
material contained in a new book is soon
exploited by the lesser writers who follow after-
wards: as a result what was at the time of
publication a highly important new discovery
soon becomes a commonplace. This most
emphatically does not apply to The Flint-
lock which remains as original and valid a con-
tribution to the history of firearms as it did
when first published. There are two reasons
for this. First, it was published in Swedish, a
language that has been mastered by very few
students of firearms outside the Scandinavian
countries. In spite of the French resume that
was provided with the Swedish edition, it has
been necessary to read Swedish in order to
realize the full scope and outstanding scholar-
ship of this work. The second reason is the
small quantity of the original edition and the
very high price it has always reached in the
antiquarian book market. Working as he did
in the Swedish Royal Armoury, Dr Lenk had
at his disposal one of the major European
collections of firearms. He was, moreover,
within easy reach of the even larger collection of
mainly seventeenth century firearms that had
been accumulated by the Counts Wrangel and
other Swedish noble families in the castle of
Skokloster. Furthermore, in Copenhagen, a
day's journey away, was the most comprehen-
sive firearms collection in all Europe, that of
the former Kings of Denmark, now distri-
buted between the Arsenal Museum, the casde
of Rosenborg and the National Museum.
Although he had so much within easy reach,
Dr Lenk travelled widely in Europe inspecting
Vll
Flintlock
collections of firearms no matter how remote.
He spent, in particular, some months in Paris
studying the French seventeenth century fire-
arms with which this work is mainly concerned.
As the title of the book indicates, Dr Lenk was
especially interested in the early period of the
flintlock, that of its origin and development.
Seventeenth century firearms are dealt with in
the greatest detail, while those of the eighteenth
century are discussed in more general terms.
Of the 134 plates illustrating many hundreds of
fine firearms, only twenty-four show eighteenth
century pieces. The seventeenth century is, on
the other hand, magnificently represented.
Practically all the photographs that were used
to illustrate the book were taken specially for
it; those familiar pieces that have been repeated
so often in other books on the subject are
conspicuously absent.
Torsten Lenk had a most perceptive eye
when he looked at a firearm. No detail of its
construction or decoration, no matter how
insignificant it might at first appear, escaped
his notice. His analysis of the changing forms
of each element of the flintlock firearm is
extraordinarily precise. It was based on personal
examination of hundreds, even thousands, of
guns and pistols in all the collections of
Europe. Whether it be the top-jaw screw, the
cock-screw or the spur on the front of the steel,
the evolution of each one of these elements is
pursued with untiring precision through each
decade of the seventeenth century.
While most of the material in The Flintlock
will, for the reasons given above, be unfamiliar
to those who have read only the French resume,
there are a number of matters in it that are
better known. Amongst these are many original
discoveries that have been of vital importance
to all his followers in the study of firearms. This
book introduced to firearms students for the
first time such topics as the invention of the
true flintlock by Marin le Bourgeois of Lisieux,
the extent and variety of the Cabinet d'Armes of
King Louis XIII of France, the great gift of
firearms made by Louis XIV to King Charles
XI Gustavus of Sweden, the importance of the
English snaphance and the existence of a
magnificent example thereof in the National
Museum, Copenhagen, as well as many other
novel ideas.
In only one respect has this book become
slighdy out of date, namely through changes of
ownership of pieces illustrated or referred to in
it. This is, however, of slight importance as the
vast majority of the objects illustrated are in
national possession and exempt from the
frequent change of ownership that is the fate of
those from private collections. Of the museums
that are mentioned in this book four no longer
possess some or all of the objects referred to as
being in their collections. These are the Royal
Artillery Museum in the Rotunda, Woolwich,
the Dresden Army Museum, the Arsenal
Museum (Zeughaus), Berlin, and the Lowen-
burg, Kassel. The more historic arms from the
Rotunda have been transferred to the Victoria
and Albert Museum, South Kensington, and to
the Armouries of the Tower of London. The
contents of the Army Museum at Dresden have
been transferred in part to the Historisches
Museum, Dresden and in part to the German
Army Museum, Potsdam. The Berlin Zeughaus
Museum has ceased to exist as such, but part of
its collections remain in the same building in
Unter den Linden, Berlin, under the name of
the Museum of German History (Museum fur
deutsche Geschichte). This museum suffered
considerable losses during and after the Second
World War. A part of the Berlin collection has
been incorporated in the Polish Army Museum
in Warsaw, the remainder is lost. A certain
amount was doubtless destroyed; much is
believed to have found its way to private
collections on the other side of the Atlantic.
Another museum that had serious losses as a
result of the Second World War is the Lowen-
burg; the final destination of the missing pieces
is not known, but it is probable that they also
will eventually be discovered in private collec-
tions. In dealing with the text of The Flintlock
I have given the present location of every piece
where known. If unknown I have left the
location given by Dr Lenk. Thus a firearm still
in Berlin will be given a location and inventory
number of the Museum of German History; a
firearm now missing from Berlin retains its
Zeughaus location and number.
vin
The Flintlock has been translated literally
from the original Swedish by Mr G. A.
Urquhart. Dr Lenk's style does not fall easily
into English. Whereas English prose is dis-
tinctly economical in its use of words, Dr Lenk
was never sparing with them. In editing this
book I have not attempted to do more than to
make the meaning clear and to ehminate from
the text what in English appears to be super-
fluous. It has not been possible to achieve any-
thing approaching a literary style. In those few
cases in which more recent research has
invalidated Dr Lenk's conclusions, I have
pointed this out in the editor's notes. Altera-
tions in ownership have been indicated in the
same way, though in some cases, in order to
avoid repetition, the alteration has been made
Editor's Introduction
in the text itself. Dr Lenk printed as an
appendix a list of the present whereabouts of
firearms bearing the inventory numbers of the
Cabinet d'Armes of Louis XIII. This has been
brought up to date and a few additional
numbers added.
The Flintlock was not published as a com-
mercial enterprise; its appearance in so sumptu-
ous a form was made possible by subsidies from
various Scandinavian sources. It seems un-
likely that the fortunate chance that brought
together so gifted an author and such muni-
ficent supporters will ever recur. The Flintlock
is likely long to retain its position as the most
splendidly produced and most scholarly work
in the whole literature of firearms.
j. F. H.
IX
INTRODUCTION
The Flintlock^
To write a manual on the history of hand
firearms is a difficult task. Some have
tried, but with results of varying merit.
Some of the best work has been done by
writers who, by giving correct references to
original sources, have contributed the primary
material essential to research. Their labour has
been of more permanent value than that of
other research workers.
The rule which is common to all human
knowledge, that synthesis must be preceded by
analysis, applies also in the history of arms.
The science of arms is still in the analytical
stage. This is particularly true as regards fire-
arms. Nothing is as yet known of the origin of
the matchlock, the wheel-lock and the snap-
hance lock*. As far as the flindock is concerned
there is evidence pointing to a definite time and,
perhaps, a definite person. France and England
have both claimed the credit of inventing the
percussion lockf. In such circumstances the
only sensible course is to divide up the
enormous amount of material into groups and
to divide these in logical order. One individual
interested in arms has quite seriously recom-
mended the study of the function of the
weapons as the only point of interest, but I
remain unconvinced that by firing a gun one
can discover how old it is and where it was
made. This is, however, the essential factor
from the viewpoint of the history of civiliza-
tion. If we can find our way to the right moment
in time and space we have arrived at the
original source of the arm. We must search
there for the remaining data in archives, in
literature, and then make comparisons with
other pieces of similar origin and period. The
ultimate aim is to dovetail the history of
arms into the knowledge of human life and
activity as a whole. The task is enormous and,
if it is to lead to a positive result, calls for the
co-operation of many industrious workers.
Each and all must make his contribution.
I personally chose the study of the flintlock
by chance. I thought of writing about Swedish
flindock weapons some twenty years ago and
began to study the literature of the subject.
One must know where to begin. The result was
discouraging. It was clear that if I were to
discover the origin of the Swedish flintlock I
should have to find the prototypes myself. This
book is the result. That about Swedish flint-
locks is still unwritten.
The method I have adopted is the typological
one. I have commenced with the definitely
authenticated arms I have been able to find and,
with these as points of departure, I continued
my efforts in much the same way as one stakes
The Flintlock
out a road. I have found that the main road is in
France and that branch roads lead to various
other centres of production. Every nation has
added something of its own character to its
own manufacture, but the source is always
France, either direcdy or indirecdy. I have
endeavoured to make this clear in my book.
As the subject is international I hope that
others as well as my fellow countrymen will
derive benefit from this primary arrangement
of material which occupies so important a
position in the history of arms.
I well realize that the last word has by no
means been said on the flintlock. I hope that
others will take on the subject after me and
further my work. The difficulties are greater
now after a great war has destroyed consider-
able quantities of the research material where it
was best preserved: i.e. in those old historical
collections which survived together with their
relevant archives. In many cases the destruction
has placed insurmountable obstacles in the path
of research. The removal of ancient arms from
the place in which they belong historically is
one of these obstacles:}:. Collectors with a sense
of responsibility can help to surmount this
problem by ensuring that documented evidence
of provenance accompanies the objects they buy
and sell.
In this English edition I have had the
opportunity to make minor corrections as
regards both text and illustrations. In excep-
tional cases references have also been made to
literature which has appeared since 1939, the
year of issue of the Swedish edition.
When wheel-locks and flintlocks are illus-
trated, I am of the opinion that they should be
shown with the pan-cover closing the pan. The
wheel-lock dog should be dropped forward on
to the pan, while the flintlock cock should
stand at half-cock. This is how these locks were
designed. This is how contemporary pattern
designers wished to see them.
The material presented in this book has been
collected from many widely divergent quarters.
I owe thanks for valuable assistance to a great
number of museum officials, archivists, librar-
ians and owners of arms. They will undoubtedly
show indulgence if I cannot mention them all
by name. I cannot, however, refrain from
emphasizing the ready helpfulness shown to me
in the museums and institutions in which I have
been privileged to study my subject, among the
most important being the Musee de FArmee,
Paris, the Tower and Wallace Collection,
London, the Armoury, Windsor Casde, the
Historisches Museum and Gewehrgalerie, Dres-
den, the Staadiches Zeughaus and Staatliche
Kunstbibliothek, Berlin, and the Tojhus
Museum, Copenhagen. The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York, and many others
have sent me photographs. Baroness Wera von
Essen and Baron Rutger von Essen, the present
owners of Skokloster (Sweden), have graciously
thrown open to me the magnificent armoury of
their casde.
A number of the photographs for the illus-
trations I have taken myself, but the majority
of the Livrustkammare and Skokloster arms
have been photographed by Mr Nils E. Azelius,
photographer to the Livrustkammar, and by
Mr Olof Ekberg of the Nordiska Museum,
Stockholm. The numerous weapons in Danish
hands have been photographed by Mr Sophus
Bengtsson of the National Museum, Copen-
hagen.
Torsten Lenk
Formerly Director of the
Livrustkammare.
Stockholm.
XI
Flintlock
Editor's Notes
Since Dr Lenk wrote these lines the origin
of the wheel-lock has been studied by
C. Blair: 'A note on the early history of the
wheel-lock', Journal of the Arms and Armour
Society, Vol. Ill, p. 221 ff. and by A. Gaibi:
'Appunti suir origine e sulla evoluzione
meccanica degli apparecchi di accensione
delle armi da fuoco portatili,' Armi Antiche,
Anno III, p. 8 1 and Anno IV, p. 37.
f And, of course, the United States as well, see
Lewis Wynant: Early Percussion Firearms,
London, 1961, Chapter III.
\ Dr Lenk was probably referring here to the
removal of the collections of the East
German Museums to Russia immediately
after the Second World War. These collec-
tions have since been returned to their
original resting-places.
Xll
CHAPTER ONE
Definition. Terminology. Types of locks,
general. Literary references to the snaphance
and flintlock^
The term flintlock is used in this work to
mean a mechanism for igniting firearms
by striking a steel or battery (frizzen)*
with a flint. The steel and pan-cover are made
in one piece, with a sear moving vertically.
The tooth of the sear engages in notches cut in
a tumbler to set the weapon at half and full-
cock. For guidance as to the terms used here
Figs, i and 2 (pp. 8 and 9) should be
consulted. They are taken principally from
Enander, Anvisning till handgevarens hdnnedom,
vard och istandsattande, Bihang (Guide to the
knowledge, care and repair of hand-guns,
Appendix) 1 . During the earlier phase of the
firearm's existence in Sweden the term 'flint-
lock' was used both for snaphance and flint-
lock; it was subsequently retained to signify
the flintlock alone when the snaphance ceased
to be used on military rifles and on guns of the
upper classes. Earlier again it would seem that,
in naming weapons with locks working on the
flint and steel principle, attention was directed
to either the construction or the flint. Thus
snaphance guns were called during the earlier
half of the seventeenth century, 'flint-guns' and
snaphance muskets 'flint muskets' 2 . An inven-
tory of military models preserved in the
Norrkoping factory in 1688 s affords much
evidence of the expression 'flintlock' meaning
snaphance. In the records and documents of
the College of War of the 1680s there is further
proof of this. The records of the earlier half of
the seventeenth century refer to the Spanish
'snaphance locks' which were used in the
Swedish army during the last quarter of the
seventeenth century. In 1920 Gustav Schroder
following tradition used the word flintlock in
both senses 5 . In Denmark the term 'flint' was,
according to evidence dating from the 1620s 4 ,
also used in the sense of snaphance.
In England Hewitt used the term 'flintlock'
for both snaphance and flintlock in i860 7 .
This Swedish term for both snaphance and
flindock has its equivalent in the French word
'fusil'. According to E. Littre 8 'fusil' primarily
means steel as well as tinderbox. Applied to
firearms it means both a lock that includes a
steel, therefore a snaphance as well as a flint-
lock, and, furthermore, the entire weapon,
though not a pistol. In the sense of a shot gun,
Flintlock
through it, is, in fact, found on the 'Mediter-
ranean locks', on the Italian and Spanish types
as well as on their variants in Algiers, in the
Balkans, in Turkey and Russia, and also on
most wheel-locks.
Finally, we have the Netherlands snaphance
(PI. 2:7) used in the English Channel region,
and its near relation the Scottish (PI. 3). This
Netherlands lock has its offshoots in Morocco
and in Russia. It is to be found in Italy and
probably also, though only for a short period,
in northern Europe 27 . The true area of distri-
bution of the Netherlands lock, as far as this
can be at present defined, coincides largely with
the flint region of western Europe, just as those
using the northern snaphances found it easy to
obtain flints from the deposits on both sides of
the southern Baltic.
The distribution of wheel-locks referred to
above applies in certain instances, as we have
said, to the sixteenth century, in others round
about 1600. As regards the first period men-
tioned we know from Swedish archive accounts
and from firearms 28 preserved in the Livrust-
kammare that snaphances were manufactured
at the time in Nuremberg and consequently
that the Germans had both wheel and snap-
hance locks. They probably served different
purposes, as was the case in Sweden during the
latter part of the sixteenth and the greater part
of the seventeenth centuries. There is every
reason to suppose that the production of both
constructions in southern Germany about the
middle of the sixteenth century was nothing
new. Just as different types of tinder-boxes
were produced at the time when the Loffelholtz
manuscript was composed, so were different
types of gun-locks made in the course of the
first half of the century. As far as Italy is con-
cerned the ordinance of 2 June 1547, which
mentions 'archibusi da ruota, da fucile, o vero
da pietra, o da acciajuolo' as being in use at the
same time should be noted. It may be that the
wheel-lock and snaphance constructions had
spread from Germany §. Whereas the snap-
hances had become widely adopted in the
border regions they seem to have been aban-
doned fairly soon in Germany.
In Sweden the manufacture of snaphances
appears to have been begun in the middle of
the sixteenth century at the same time as the
immigration of the German gunsmiths 29 . Soler
ascribes to Simon Marcuarte, the son of an
immigrant German (of the same name), the
invention of the most familiar type of Spanish
snaphance (the Miguelet) 30 .
Mention should also be made of a snaphance
construction which Aim has found on muskets
in Dresden, Nuremberg, Coburg and Copen-
hagen 31 . It likewise occurs on a three barrelled
pistol in the Musee de l'Armee, Paris (Inv. No.
M 1763), on a gun in Oxford (Pitt-Rivers
Museum, Inv. No. 1139) 32 and on a pistol in
the Tower of London Armouries (Inv. No.
XII:736. PI. 1:5). The construction is charac-
terized by a sliding pan-cover which is moved
from the pan by an external sear and attached to
the pan by a bolt. This bolt is released by a
projecting arm on the descending cock. The
mainspring is mounted inside the lock and the
sear is of wheel-lock construction. The steel
and pan-cover are separate. The upper jaw of
the cock is secured by a pin which passes
through the lower jaw. Aim reproduces the
musket preserved in the Tojhus Museum,
dated 1572. The Tower of London pistol has
a barrel bearing the Nuremberg mark||. Lord
Dillon assumes that its lock is an early example
of the German snaphance and points out that
the sear is reminiscent of that of the wheel-
lock 33 . He regards the tumbler as a wheel in
miniature and also shows that the pan-cover of
this construction is common on wheel-locks.
It is very possible that the construction should
be regarded as German, although thorough
research into the problem is required.
This type of lock gives rise to much specula-
tion. It has certain details — the sliding pan-
cover, the sear and the shape of the lock-plate —
in common with the Netherlands lock. The
construction of the cock with the pin holding
its upper jaw passing through the under jaw is
found on the 'Mediterranean locks'. The cock-
screw ring which is usual on the latter is found
on the three barrelled pistol in Paris. A con-
nection may perhaps also be found between the
winged-nut of the Tower of London pistol and
the moveable nut round the head of the jaw-
Plate
Scandinavia and
Germany.
1 500s and 1 600s.
1. Snaphance of German type dating from the middle
sixteenth century; Stockholm, Livrustkammaren 1208.
2 and 3. Snaphance-lock, defective Netherlands close of
sixteenth century (?) Amsterdam, Rijksmusem 30.7762.
4. Norwegian snaphance lock from Telemarken; Stockholm
Nordiska Museum 56.592. 5. Snaphance pistol. Nuremburg.
Latter half of sixteenth century; London, Tower Armouries
XII: 736.
Plate
England.
End of sixteenth century.
I, 3 and 4. Petronel. 1584; Copenhagen National Museum,
Department II 10.428. 2. Portrait of Captain Thomas Lee,
1601.
Plate 3.
.
Scotland.
Beginning of seven-
teenth century.
Scottish snaphance pistols. 1 and 2; Copenhagen, Tojhus-
museet B 345. 3. 1620; Pauilhac Collection, Paris.
Plate 4.
England.
Seventeenth century.
1 and 4. Pistol with dog-lock. 1620-30S; Renwick Collection,
Ravenswick (Mass., U.S.A.). 2. Musket with dog-lock.
Stock dated 1619, lock later; Windsor Castle 364. 3 and 5.
Gun, defective, with dog-lock. Mid seventeenth century;
Stockholm, Livrustkammaren 06/1010.
Plate 5.
Spain.
Mid seventeenth century
Spanish snaphance guns. 1, 3, 4 and 7, signed 'Gianino'.
2, 5, 6 and 8, signed 'Atienza'; Dresden, Gewehrgalerie
1186 and 1184.
Plate 6.
^
'■■-■:::.- '*'S- ; ; , • -" ■'■■-' '■■ ■
?* i
Italy and France.
Earlier half of
teenth century.
seven-
I, Italian snaphance gun, second quarter of seventeenth
century; Schwarzburg 988. 2-5, pistol with snaphance of
Italian type, beginning of seventeenth century. French or
made from French prototype; Dresden, Historisches
Museum P.Z. 405 .
Plate
France and Holland.
Beginning of seven-
teenth century.
**£
I^^JfeL W *
1 '- -r"»'///,
j£5fl^J"^^
sftcsisfcv ..■'■■!-
i. Gun with Dutch snaphance lock 1622. France (?);
Renwick Collection, Ravenswick (Mass., U.S.A.). 2-5.
Jacob De le Gardie's target gun with Dutch snaphance;
Paris, Musee de l'Armee M. 688.
Plate 8.
France, Lisieux.
Beginning of seven-
teenth century.
i. Henry IV's (?) flintlock gun by 'M. Le Bourgeoys a
Lisieul'; Leningrad, State Hermitage F 281.
screw which is characteristic of the Kabyle
Arabian guns. This nut is also found on an
identical construction known to be of Ripoll
manufacture represented in the Tojhus Museum,
Copenhagen (Inv. Nos. B 342, B 343). Whether
the Kabyle guns should be regarded as develop-
ing from Spanish prototypes does not call for
discussion here. Such an explanation would,
however, be very natural. The same type of
cock fitted with a cock-screw ring occurs on the
snaphance fragment discovered in the Dutch
settlement on the Barents sea (PL 1:2, 3). This
must be included in the Nordic group by
reason of the rear spur of the cock and has its
'next of kin' in the Norwegian snaphance. The
ring of the cock is also characteristic of the
Baltic snaphances and of those of seventeenth-
century Swedish muskets.
Aim considers that the snaphance locks as a
whole are advanced constructions and that they
all derive from a common basic type 34 . The
constructional details mentioned above support
this view. There is, however, no reason to
exclude the wheel-lock from such an assump-
tion. While the sparking-lock constructions
were being developed from their primitive
stage to perfection details were evidently
exchanged between wheel-lock and snap-lock.
This, in its turn, indicates that the cultural and
geographical region within which these con-
structions originated was not particularly large.
We may even assume that there were different
types of tinder-boxes within the same area, an
assumption to which the drawings of the
Loffelholtz manuscripts may also lend colour.
It is still an open question what course the
development took. A series of special investi-
gations must be made before a survey with
reasonably well-grounded claims for authen-
ticity can be advanced.
From the close of the eighteenth century a
series of books dealing with firearms have been
published in which certain claims constantly
recur but remain to a great extent uncorrob-
orated. One of these claims the year 1630 as
the time, and France as the country of origin,
of the flindock. The source is, so far as can be
judged, Diderot and d'Alembert's ency-
clopedia 35 , which states : 'II (le fusil) fut invente
Definition. Terminology. Types of locks
en France en 1630 pour substituer au mousquet
qui etait alors 1'arme ordinaire de l'infanterie;
mais on ne l'adopta que quarante ans apres.' As
regards the wheel-lock it states, with indication
of the sources (art. arquebuse), that it is older.
Another opinion that prevailed in the litera-
ture of the entire nineteenth century was that
the snaphance lock was a Spanish invention.
No exact statement was given as to the source
of this information, but in all probability it was
founded on the very brief reference to Simon
Marcuarte as the inventor of the miquelet-
locks, which were regarded as Spanish at the
end of the eighteenth century, ('se debe la
invencion de las Haves de patilla, que hoy
llamamos a la Espanola'). This is recorded by
Soler in the work above quoted on the gun-
smiths of his native city of Madrid 36 . According
to him the matchlock was succeeded by the
unreliable wheel-lock. The latter was slow in
use and was ousted in its turn by the Spanish
lock.
The Spanish lock is, it is true, a snaphance-
lock but a highly developed one. Soler's state-
ment does not justify any assumptions regard-
ing the snaphance-locks, but is, if it can be
proved, most interesting with reference to the
origin of the flintlock.
A few years earlier than Soler, Magne de
Marolles, an official at the French court (d.
1792), published his book La Cbasse au jusil
which was in many respects a model publication
in giving references to sources, etc. Concerning
the flindock he quotes (ed. 1836, p. 39) Pietro
della Valle's description of his travels of 161 7,
'pistole a focile, che non s'ha da perder tempo a
tirar su la ruota', to show that the ordinary
flindock, 'la platine actuelle', already existed
at that time. This is true, but it is not very
likely that Pietro della Valle's 'pistole a focile'
was fitted with a flintlock. It undoubtedly has
reference to a snaphance-lock, a construction
which appears to have escaped Magne de
Marolles's otherwise sharp eye. This is also
why, when quoting on the same page Vita
Bonfadini's statement that the wheel-lock in
Italy was already replaced about 1550 by
'arquebuses a fusil (a focile)' he assumes that
these latter were equipped with flindocks, 'la
Flintlock
platine moderne'. In this case a snaphance-lock
must, of course, be meant.
To Magne de Marolles the wheel-lock is a
German invention, which existed in 1540 but
which most probably is older. The matchlock
which had simultaneously been in use for a
long time is the precursor of the wheel-lock.
In passing, mention may be made of a
Beschrijving van een aanmerkelijke snaphaan . . . van
Ao IJ73 by J. le Francq van Berkhey. This
publication gives neither place nor year but
evidently dates from the close of the eighteenth
century. The picture which he appends shows
a typical flindock gun of the latter half of the
seventeenth century.
In England Grose heads the procession of
historians of arms but has little or nothing to
say of the flindock 37 . When Meyrick published
his survey of the types of locks in 1829 38 , Italy
was advanced as being the country of origin of
firearms. The wheel-lock was considered to be
an Italian invention, known in 15 21, and soon
after introduced into Germany, France, the
Netherlands, and England first got to know of
the construction by importing it.
Meyrick refers to the 'fusil'. It is not clear
what he meant by this term, but it probably is a
flindock, as he indicates — presumably from the
French encyclopedia — that the construction
originated in France in 1630 and that 'fusiliers',
soldiers who derived their names from the
gunlocks, were equipped with such weapons in
England, Scotland and Wales. Meyrick also
points out that Benvenuto Cellini in his
memoirs for the year 1536 mentioned a 'fusil'
(actually sciopetto) which Duke Alessandro
(Medici) received from Germany.
Referring to a portrait of an English Com-
monwealth officer Meyrick points out that the
flintlock was used in England as early as the
middle of the seventeenth century. The con-
struction is connected by him with the snap-
hance lock and in another passage he describes
it as French from the period about 1635 and in
general use for military purposes in 1680. In
1645 Markham recommends the flintlock in the
Soulier's Accidence in preference to the snap-
hance locks.
The gun and its development™, the work of
W. W. Greener, one of the earlier English
writers, has had the widest circulation. The first
edition appeared in 188 1, by 1899 it had been
published in no fewer than seven editions.
Greener also considered that the matchlock
was the oldest lock construction and that the
wheel-lock came next. The wheel-lock was
invented in Nuremberg in 15 15 and was
improved there in the years 15 17, 1573 and
1632, and also in Venice in 1584. By flintlock
Greener means both snaphance and flindocks.
According to the most authentic sources Spain
is the country of origin of the snaphance and
its construction dates from early in the seven-
teenth century, prior to 1630. Its first form was
the 'Lock a la Miquelet', a name which it
received after a Spanish regiment made up of
Pyrenean robbers. Grose and other English
writers are of the opinion that the construction
is of Netherlands origin and that it was first
used by poultry thieves ('snaaphans') who con-
structed the lock after studying the wheel-lock.
Soon after these snaphance locks had begun to
be used, flintlock guns were introduced, called
'fusils' after the flint ('fucile'). The oldest lock
has the mainspring on the outside, the later
ones on the inside. The Spanish type is illus-
trated by the lock of a Spanish gun in The
Royal Collection (Gewehrgalerie), Dresden.
De Beroaldo Bianchini 40 lists the lock con-
structions in the following order: matchlock,
wheel-lock (also called the German lock), the
Spanish lock, which has a half-cock, the
Austrian imitation of the Spanish, with the
mainspring reversed, and finally, the flintlock.
He gives no dates, but considers the wheel-lock
to be older than the flintlock.
The Danish writer Budde-Lund 41 views the
appearance of the lock constructions in the
following manner: oldest is the matchlock,
which the writer knows during the period
1 378-1722. The wheel-lock was invented in
Nuremberg in 15 17, used until 1640 and was
called 'the German lock'. The Spanish lock,
illustrated by a Swedish snaphance lock, was
invented not long after the 'German'. The
flintlock (Steenlaasen, Steinschloss, Batteri-
schloss, platine a silex) was first mentioned in
France in 1630 and had been used right up to
the writer's own day. The oldest specimen
known is on a Scottish pistol (in the Tojhus
Museum). Among the flintlocks reference is
also made to 'the external lock' called, too,
'the Spanish lock', characterized by the lock
parts being placed on the outside of the plate.
Closely related views are expressed in the
work of the Saxon captain, J. Schon, Geschkhte
der Handfeuerwaffen, printed in Dresden in 1858.
This book contributes a considerable amount of
information towards research and has been
frequently used by later writers. Schon also
begins with the matchlock, the construction of
which he assigns to the earlier half of the
fifteenth century (p. 12). The wheel-lock 'the
German lock or wheel-lock' is considered to
have been invented in Nuremberg in 1 5 1 5 and
to have attained perfection two years later
(p. 24). The Spanish, as well as the Netherlands
snaphance lock, is said to have been constructed
at the close of the sixteenth century with a
question mark as to which originated first
(p. 36). The statements made by certain writers
that the snaphance had been invented at the
same time as the wheel-lock are repudiated as
unacceptable, as no book, either contemporary
or later, mentions both of them. This assump-
tion is contradicted by the sliding pan-cover of
the Netherlands snaphance lock. It is exactly
the same as that of the wheel-lock and conse-
quently cannot well be contemporary (p. 50).
As an example of the Spanish snaphance lock,
Schon reproduces an ordinary Spanish snap-
hance and also a Kabyle lock; the Netherlands
are represented merely by a Scottish snaphance
and a reference is made to other such locks in
the Historisches Museum, Dresden, bearing
the years 1598, 161 1 and 161 5 (p. 37).
Schon explicitly calls the flintlock 'these new
gun-locks invented in France in the year 1640'
(p. 66), and reproduces (Fig. 52) a lock that is
certainly not French 42 . It has a tumbler with
full cock notch only, a flintlock sear and the
sliding pan-cover and steel of the Netherlands
lock. This lock gives Schon the idea that the
flintiock developed from the Netherlands snap-
hance. Further improvements include the
adoption of the steel of the Spanish snap-
hance made in one piece with the pan-cover, a
Definition. Terminology. Types of locks
bridle above the tumbler and, finally, the half-
cock. The flintlock thus perfected was adopted
by a part of the French army in 1648. Passing
mention is also made of the Courland snap-
hance lock, which is illustrated (Fig. 54) by a
relatively late Baltic snap-lock with the main-
spring on the inside of the lock-plate (p. 68).
On the foundation laid by Schon, M. Thier-
bach built further. His main work is Die
geschichtliche Entwickelung der Handfeuerwaffen.
To him also the matchlock is oldest. As a
precursor of the snaphance lock he mentions
the match-snaplock. According to Thierbach
the wheel-lock was constructed in 15 17, the
snaphance at the beginning of the sixteenth
century. The wheel-lock is German, the snap-
hance Spanish, both being derived from the
tinderbox. He thus expresses his views regard-
ing the origin and first distribution of the snap-
hance lock (p. 51): 'Die erste praktische Ver-
wertung obiger Ideen (tinderbox-snaphance
lock) fand ohne Zweifel in Spanien statt,
wenigsten sind dort die altesten noch erhaltenen
Schlosser dieser Art gebaut und von dort aus
weit verbreitet worden, weswegen man diese Art
auch „das spanische Schnappschloss" nennt'.
Thierbach expresses the same opinions in his
paper "Uber die Entwickelung des Stein-
schlosses" 43 in which he denies to the Spanish
snaphance all influence upon the farther
development into the flintlock. This he con-
siders to have taken place exclusively in France
and in Germany. The Spanish snaphance has,
on the other hand, been of importance for
Africa and the Orient, whither Spanish trade
commodities were mainly sent. As examples of
early snaphances he reproduces in his book a
Swedish 'lagg-lock' dating from the middle of
the seventeenth century (Fig. 119), mounted on
a gun at Ettersburg. The barrel of this weapon
is dated 1 5 40. Thierbach expressly calls it Ger-
man and considers as German the snaphance
guns in Darmstadt, which Fleetwood 44 later
proved to be Swedish, as he also did with the
Swedish snaphance guns in Skokloster.
In the small catalogue of the Thierbach
Collection in the Dresden Arsenal museum 45
the Spanish snaphance lock is described as
having been imitated in the Netherlands.
Flintlock
Muzzle' T~i
Fore-sight
Barrel -
Back-sight
Chamber
Breech-plug.
Lock 1
Small of Butt.
Nose of Comb
Flange of Butt
Comb of Butt "
Butt ■
Heel of Butt
Forward
Ramrod pipe
Ramrod Groove
.Middle
Ramrod pipe
•Ramrod
Middle
Ramrod pipe
Stock
"Rear
Ramrod pipe
Boss of Pommel
-Trigger guard f ini'al
■Trigger
Trigger guard
Tang of
ri gg er g u Butt-plate screw
Butt-plate screw
Fig. i
Spur of
Pommel
Butt cap or Pommel
Ring Back-sight
seen from above
Side plate
Thumb-plate or Escutcl
Tang
Butt-plate
Definition. Terminology. Types of locks
Jaw-screw
Spur of Cock
Back of Cock
Neck
Body
Upper Jaw
Lower Jaw
Edge of Steel
Face of Steel
Spur of Steel
Pan-cover
Flintlock: Outside
Cock-screw
or
Pivot-pin
Lock-plate
Steel Spring
Lock-plate Shoulder
Flash-guard /L houlder
Pan-screw Hook
MainSpring Spur of Tumb j er
Bridle
Tumbler-pivot
Sear-screw
Sear
Sear Arm
Full-cock^,. Spring
Nose of Sear
Tumbler\ Half _ cock
Flintlock: inside
Fig. 2
Flintlock
The development of the snaphance into the
flintlock Thierbach considers to have taken
place gradually, and he finds the boundary line
between snaphance and flintlock unclear. The
construction cannot be the work of one man
(such an inventor has, as a matter of fact,
never been heard of) but had developed
through changes and improvements originally
in the matchlock and, later, in the snaphance
lock. Particular stress is laid on the cocking
and trigger arrangements. A lock in which
steel and pan-cover are made in separate pieces
is regarded as a flintlock, if the other features
of the flintlock are there, viz. the half-cock
secured by a sear and tumbler. The solution of
the problem begins with the transfer of the
mainspring to the inside of the lock-plate,
setting at half-cock by a pin passing through a
hole in the lock-plate, and at full-cock by a
catch on the horizontally moving sear which
engages over a ledge on the tumbler. Alterna-
tively a hooked (dog) catch is substituted for
the half-cock. Finally, both full and half-cock
are provided by notches in the tumbler. The
system with a vertically moving sear com-
mences with a tumbler which has two rect-
angular notches (example an Italian lock,
dated 1647), and continues with acute-angled
notches (example another Italian lock known to
have been bought in 1665). This settles the
flindock question.
Thierbach further points out that the flint-
lock originally had no bridle over the tumbler.
Its further development finds expression in the
appearance of this in two stages. In the first the
bridle merely supports the tumbler, but in the
second it has been extended and also supports
the sear. The fully developed flintlock exists in
1659, judging by Berain's design plates with
which Thierbach was acquainted, in a dated set in
the royal library at Sigmaringen 46 . The flint-
lock is indebted chiefly to French masters for
its final design, so that it has also previously
been called the French lock 4 '. The Thirty
Years War had a retarding effect upon the
development of the flintlock.
In Boeheim 48 we find, in the main, a repeti-
tion of Thierbach's statements. He considers,
however, that the Spanish snaphance 'das Urbild
des spateren Flintenschlosses' first appears
in the latter half of the sixteenth century and
that it already possesses the essential features of
the flintlock mechanism. Only the tumbler
with its notch is lacking. In addition the main
part of the mechanism lies on the outside of the
lock-plate. The Netherlands snaphance has
undoubtedly sprung from the Spanish and is
based on the same system. The fact that the
mechanism is placed on the inside of the lock-
plate is an improvement. It is regarded as a
disadvantage, however, that the battery consists
only of a steel on an arm. The first flintlock
guns, luxury sporting weapons, were made in
Paris (p. 464). If a search were to be made for
their inventors, or for the improvers of the
snaphance, an enquiry would have to be made
as to what gunsmiths were active in Paris in
1648. Boeheim states as a fact that the Parisian
Philippe Cordier d'Aubeville [sic] known from
1635 to 1665, shows a flintlock in an engraving
dated 1654. A still older original, signed 'Felix
Werder Tiguri Inventor 1652' (PL 32:2), is
in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 49 .
There is no doubt that it is the existence of this
dated lock, with its local characteristics, that
caused Boeheim in his lecture on 'Die Waffe
und ihre einstige Bedeutung im WelthandeP 50
to consider that the place of origin of the early
flindock was probably Switzerland about 1630.
This weapon, taken together with the informa-
tion in the Diderot encyclopedia, is probably
the ground for Boeheim's opinion. In England
a special type was made at an early stage. The
snap or flindocks vary in detail but have some
main elements in common, viz. the cock, pan,
pan-cover, steel and steel-spring. In Meister der
Waffenschmiedekunst bl the same writer points out
the existence in the castle of Frauenberg, of a
revolver gun fitted with a flintlock which he
dated 'not later than between 1620 and 1630'.
Demmin states that the flintlock was prob-
ably constructed in France or Germany between
1620 and 1640 52 . Of later writers two whose
works have attained wider circulation should be
mentioned, viz. Jackson 53 and Pollard 54 . The
former admits: 'Although the flintlock proper
is said to have been invented in Spain about
1630, I must confess my inability to discover,
10
either in museums or private collections, any
weapon of quite so early a date fitted with this
form of lock' (p. 15). The latter points out the
insufficiency of the available sources: 'The
date of introduction of the flindock has been
attributed by most writers to 1630-40, but it
is not easy to find on what evidence they based
their facts' (p. 45). To George 55 the matchlock,
which is the older weapon, the wheel-lock
and the snaphance or the flintlock, which is
the latest, were all in existence at the beginning
of the seventeenth century. Neither the time
nor the place of its origin is definitely estab-
lished. The distinction between snaphance and
flindock has been made by modern writers.
The early snaphance or flintlocks were, accord-
ing to George, intended chiefly for military use.
In English works 66 repeated mention is made
of a gun in the Tower of London Armouries
(Inv. No. XII: 63), dated 1614 on the barrel
and lock, as the oldest known flintlock weapon.
Because of the roses and thistles which decorate
the stock it is attributed to Charles I. The
attribution seems to be based on the report
of the Proceedings of the Archaeological Institute
printed in the Archaeological Journal* 1 for
1859. Mr Hewitt referred to a remarkable
fowling-piece briefly described by mentioning
the rose and thistle decoration, the dating and
mark, which includes the letters 'r a' (Richard
Atkin, gunsmith, of London). The conclusion
reads: 'From the facts already enumerated, it
seems impossible to doubt that this piece
belonged to Prince Charles'. How so definite a
conclusion was reached is not clear. Hewitt,
however, accepted the attribution which
accompanied the gun when it was transferred
from Woolwich in 1820 58 .
We must, however, delete this weapon from
the examples of the oldest flintlock. This
ffoulkes has already done 59 . His illustration of
the gun shows that it is a typical Scottish snap-
hance gun. It is, moreover, considered such by
Whitelaw 60 . The decoration of the stock may
have some bearing on the attribution of the gun
to a certain owner. The shield engraved on the
barrel which should have contained the coat of
arms of the owner 61 , is empty, and what is
more, the weapon bears number 129 in the
Definition. Terminology. Types of locks
French Royal Cabinet d'Armes, the inventory
of which gives a full description of it 62 .
ffoulkes states that the gun came to the
Tower of London Armouries about 1820 from
the 'Military Repository, Woolwich' 63 . Regard-
ing the Woolwich Collection, Meyrick definitely
says that it is booty from France, that it formed
a part of the collection kept in the palace of
St Germain, and that it contained Chevalier
Bayard's arms 64 . There will be reason to refer to
this again later, but the existence of other French
Royal weapons in the Woolwich Collection
may be mentioned at this stage. It confirms
Meyrick's statement.
The gun in question has incorrectly attracted
attention as the oldest dated flindock weapon
and the statement that its first owner was Prince
Charles — subsequently Charles I — has often
been repeated. It seems, therefore, important to
point out here that both statements are entirely
unfounded. It is in fact a Scottish snaphance
gun dated 1614 and it belonged to the French
Royal Cabinet d'Armes. It is included in the
inventory of the latter, completed in 1673, as
Number 129, with which number the gun is
moreover marked. This does not exclude the
possibility that the gun was a gift from a
member of the British royal family to Louis
XIII. Heroard mentions in his diary several
such gifts, including arms 65 .
In the work Eldhandvapen I 66 1 quoted above,
the Swedish writer J. Aim provides the most
comprehensive and best resume of the older
literature, other than that in French and
English, together with the results of his own
research work. He adopts a critical attitude
towards the opinions of the earlier writers,
pointing out the weakness of their sources and
absence of research. Against the claim that the
snaphance lock was invented in Spain he
stresses the fact that 'the specially Spanish
type of lock is so highly developed that it can
hardly be the original type'. As early evidence
of the flint snaphance-lock he indicates, follow-
ing Angelucci, an ordinance issued at Ferrara
of 14 February 1522 (p. 54). The wording
implies that this construction must be meant:
he further quotes, with reference to the wheel-
lock, Feldhaus's statement in Schuss und Waffe,
11
Flintlock
Vol. Ill, p. 197, that the use of wheel-locks was
forbidden at the Geisslingen shooting meet-
ing^. A notice in 'Zeitschrijt fur hist oris che
Waffenkunde\ Vol. VII, p. 26, states that there
was a gunsmith and wheel-lock maker Hans
Luder in Goslar in 1509. The Emperor
Maximilian's prohibition of 'feuerschlagende
Buchsen'** (p. 69) he considers may possibly
have applied to the flint or snaphance-locks 8 '.
This might possibly explain why this par-
ticular construction 'did not acquire any
importance in Germany'. The area in which
the different types of snaphance-locks were
used surrounds that in which the central
European wheel-lock was preferred.
Certain types of snaphance-locks were devel-
oped under the influence of the wheel-lock
construction. The range of distribution of the
Netherlands snaphance-lock embraces Scotland,
and most probably England and France too.
It should therefore really be called western
European. It was also an article of export to
Morocco and Russia.
"The flintlock has been developed from the
Netherlands snaphance-lock and differs only
from it in the arrangement of the cock and the
construction of the shoulder of the cock and
the steel' (p. 216). Aim also states that the
flindock was invented in western Europe in
the 1 620s without, however, indicating his
source of information (p. 220). He mentions
that there is a gun in 'the Artillery Museum,
Paris', with a combined flint and matchlock
which is dated 1636. In the middle of the
seventeenth century the bridle appears and is
fully developed by 1670 (p. 219).
It should be evident, from the above brief
extracts from the earlier literature, that the
evidence which can be extracted from it varies
a great deal and is contradictory as regards the
time and place of the origin of the various
types of locks. The authors often fail to give
their sources. In such circumstances it seems as
if the entire problem should be taken up from
the beginning. The fact that each spark pro-
ducing type of lock has at least some detail in
common with another main type leads us to the
working hypothesis that the origin of all
sparking types of locks should be traced back
to a relatively small area. Now, if Spain can be
eliminated as the country of origin of the snap-
hance-locks, it is only natural that research
should primarily be directed towards southern
Germany. The very lively trade with Italy, the
northern countries, the Netherlands and Eng-
land may well have furthered a rapid spread of
the types. Benvenuto Cellini's statement about
Duke Alessandro's gun that had come from
Germany is undoubtedly no mere accident. In
1546 the Council of Augsburg considered it
necessary to forbid the export of guns as the
masters were so overwhelmed with orders
from elsewhere that the town itself could not
get its own requirements supplied 68 . The fact
that monarchs and princes introduced foreign
masters has naturally, together with exporta-
tion, played an important part in the distribu-
tion of lock constructions. Marcuarte is one
of these emigre German masters. German
gunsmiths came to Sweden in the middle of the
sixteenth century. This fact, as has already been
pointed out, should be linked with the first
mention of the snaphance in Swedish docu-
ments at that time. German gunsmiths worked
in England as early as the reign of Henry VIII.
A complete account of the history of the
development of the types of locks must in any
case be preceded by a long course of detailed
research.
Editor's Notes
* The term steel is here used in preference to
the dialect form 'frizzen' which was not
introduced into arms terminology until the
twentieth century.
J Recent research by Blair and Gaibi has
shown that the Italian wheel-lock, if it did
not precede the German version, was
probably an independent development.
I These locks have since been studied by
Dr A. Hoff: 'Hjullaase med seglformet
hanefjer', Vaanbenhistoriske Aarbeger, Vol.
HI, p. 68.
§ Dr Lenk here repeats the view, now no
longer generally accepted, that the Italian
wheel-lock derived from Germany.
12
Plate 9.
France, Lisieux.
Beginning of
teenth century.
seven-
Louis XIII's flintlock gun, marked '1 b', probably Jean
Bourgeoys of Lisieux, 161 5; Ren wick Collection, Ravens-
wick (Mass., U.S.A.).
Plate 10.
France, Lisieux.
Beginning of
teenth century.
seven-
i. Inside of lock of gun PL 8. 2. Inside of lock of gun PL 9.
3. Inside of lock of gun PL 11:3.
Plate
ii.
France.
Beginning of
teenth century.
Flintlock guns, i and 2. Decorated by Marin Le Bourgeoys
seven- of Lisieux. 3. Louis XIII's flintlock gun by 'M. le Bourg-
eoys', 1620s. 4, c. 161 5; Paris, Musee de l'Armee M. 529.
M. 435, unnumbered.
Plate 12.
France, Lisieux.
Beginning of seven-
teenth century.
Arms decoration by Marin le Bourgeoys. i. Detail of gun
PL 11:2. 2. Detail of gun; Paris, Musee de l'Armee M. 369.
3-6. Details of gun PI. 11:3.
|| This pistol is now considered to have been
restocked at a later date. There are reasons
to think it may be of French origin, see
J. F. Hay ward, The Art of the Gunmaker,
Vol. I, p. 105.
^f C. Blair, 'A note on the early history of the
wheel-lock', Journal oj the Arms and Armour
Society, Vol. Ill, p. 221 ff. has shown that
the first two sources quoted by Aim are in
fact devoid of foundation. Most recent
research accepts the Leonardo drawings
as the earliest record of the wheel-lock and
certain Italian combined crossbows and
wheel-lock guns in the Palazzo Ducale,
Venice, as the earliest surviving examples
of the construction.
** This prohibition could apply equally to
wheel-locks or snap-locks.
Notes to Chapter One
1. I have adopted in this work the terms 'cock
(retaining) screw' for the screw that fixes
the cock, and 'jaw screw' for that which
holds the flint.
2. Aim, Eldhandvapen I. P. 170.
3. Norrkoping Factory's account 1688. —
War Archives.
4. Aim, 'Svenska muskotsnapplas pa Carl
XI's tid.' Svenska Vapenhistoriska salls-
kapets arsskrift. 1934-37. P. 89 ff.
5 . Schroder, Jaktminnen /ran fjaljoch sj'6. Pp.
260, 261.
6. Claus Pommevechi's inventory 23/3/1620
'I gammel flintebos'. Helsingors Skiftebog,
fol. 114. Landsarkivet, Copenhagen. —
Delivery from Copenhagen Arsenal to
Malmo 12/7/1624. '1000 flindt ror'. Archive
Accounts, Arrear Payments Book. Rigsark-
ivet, Copenhagen. Information from Arne
HofF, Inspector of Museums, Copen-
hagen. — Cf. also Blom, Kristian den fjendes
Artillery. Pp. 63, 85.
7. Hewitt, Ancient armour and weapons in
Europe. Supplement. Pp. 657, 710.
8. Littre, Dictionnaire de la langue fran false.
T. I, 2nd part. D— H.S. 1805, 1806.
9. Poumerol, Quatrains au Roy. Printed by
Rocolet au Palais 163 1. The only known
Definition. Terminology. Types of locks
original in Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal, Paris.
Reprinted in Bibliotheque Elzevirienne 79:
VI, Paris 1856 entitled Varietes historiques et
litteraires.
10. Gamillschag, Etymologisches Worterhuch der
fran^osischen Sprache. P. 448.
11. Magne de Marolles, Ea chasse au fusil. P. 39,
note. (A smaller publication entitled Essai
sur la chasse au fusil appeared in 1781. The
edition of 1 836 is used in the present book.)
'Le mot focile (fusil), signifie egalement,
tant en italien qu'en francois soit le caillou,
soit l'instrument d' acier, dont on se sert
pour en tirer du feu, soit la partie de la
platine appelee batterie, soit la platine
entiere; et l'on a fini, en France, par
appliquer cette denomination a l'arme
meme, en cessant de l'appeler arquebuse,
lorsque les platines a rouet ou a meche ont
ete tout-a-fait abandonnees'. 'Arquebuse'
was the usual French term for gun before
'fusil'. Cf., for example: Heroard, Journal
sur I'enfance et la jeunesse de Eouis XIII
(1601-28). Passim.
12. Angelucci, Catalogo della Armeria Reale.
Pp. 420-24, note.
1 3 . Thierbach, Die geschichtliche Entwickelung der
Handfeuerwaffen. Pp. 27, 50, 51.
14. Aim, Eldhandvapen I. P. 28. 'Achat d'un
fusy tout garny servant a allumer le feu
pour tirer desdites couleuvres'. Rathgen,
Das Geschut^ im Mittelalter. P. 535.
15. Cederstrom, 'Ha gevarslasen uppstatt ur
elddon?' Eivrustkammaren, Bd. I. H.4.
Pp. 65-76.
16. Cf. Feldhaus, 'Das Radschloss bei Leo-
nardo da Vinci'. Zeitschrift fur historische
Waffenkunde. Vol. IV. Pp. 153, 154 and
Feldhaus, 'Feuerwaffen bei Leonardo da
Vinci'. Zeitschrift fur historische Waffenkunde.
Vol. VI. Pp. 30, 31.
17. Hoopes, 'Drei Beitrage zum Radschloss, 2.
Radschlosser nach Leonardo da Vinci'.
Zeitschrift fur historische Waff en- und Kos-
tumkunde. Vol. XIII. Pp. 225-27. PI. XI
and XII.
18. Le Musee de l'Armee. Armes et ar mures
anciennes. T. II. Pp. m-14. PI. XXXVIII.
19. Micol, Panoplie europeenne.
13
Flintlock
20. Dean, Handbook of arms and armour. Fig.
115. Second pistol from top.
21. GuifTrey, Invent aire general du mobilier de la
couronne. T. 11. Pp. 43-84.
22. Heroard, journal. 21 Oct., 161 1.
23. Cf. Lenk, 'Den forgyllda bossan'. Gustav
Vasaminnen. Pp. 135-41.
24. Aim, Eldhandvapen I. Pp. 131-38, 142-44,
159. Malmborg, Stockholms bossmakare. B.
1 ff. Cederstrom and Malmborg, Den dldre
Eivrustkammaren 16 J4, P. 53 and 68.
25. Aim, Eldhandvapen I. P. 159. Fragments of
such, a lock are part of the Barents dis-
covery in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
(Inv. No. 30. 7762. PL 1 :z and 3) and may
probably indicate the source of the con-
struction, unless the lock or the weapon
was dropped on the place it was found by
Norwegian hunters. Barents broke away
from Nova Zembla in 1 5 97.
26. Gun with the inscription 'Narva' in the
Royal Armoury, Windsor Castle. Laking,
The armoury of Windsor Castle. European
Section. P. 96. No. 304.
27. Blom, Kristian den fjerdes Artilleri. Pp. 63,
66. Enander, Anvisning till handgevarens
kdnnedom. P. L. Jakobsson, Eantmilitdr bevdp-
ning och beklddnad under dldre Vasatiden och
Gustav II Adolfs tid. Append., 2-5. Pp.
412-29.
28. Inventarium pa thet lille Archliedt . . . ijj/.
Kammararkivet, Stockholm. Strodda
administrativa handl. 9. Cederstrom and
Malmborg, Den dldre Livrustkammaren 16J4.
PI. 53.
29. Aim, Eldhandvapen I. P. 138. Malmborg,
Stockholms bossmakare. P. 1 .
30. SoJer, Compendio historico de los arcabuceros de
Madrid. P. 40.
31. Aim. Eldhandvapen I. P. 98.
32. ffoulkes, European arms and armour in the
University of Oxford. P. 49. No. 104. PI. XIV.
33. Dillon, 'On the development of gunlocks,
from examples in the Tower'. Archaeolo-
gical Journal, Vol. L. Lond. 1893. P. 127.
34. Aim, Eldhandvapen I. P. 69.
35. Diderot and d'Alembert, Encyclopedie. P.
378.
36. Soler, Compendio historico de los arcabuceros de
Madrid. Pp. 40, 41.
37. Grose, A treatise on ancient armour.
38. Meyrick, 'Observations'. Archaeologia, Vol.
XXII. Pp. 59-105.
39. Greener, The gun and its development. P. 64 ff.
40. De Beroaldo Bianchini, Abhandlung fiber die
Feuer- und Seitengewehre LP. 1 5 6 ff.
41. Budde-Lund, Haandskydevaabnenes Historie.
P. 116 fF.
42. This lock, which by reason of its pan-cover
and steel is quite definitely not French, can
be dated from the 1650s or 1660s.
43. Thierbach, 'fiber die Entwickelung des
Steinschlosses'. Zeitschrift fur historische
Waffenkunde. Vol. III. Pp. 305-11.
44. Fleetwood, Svenska 1600 — talsbossori Hessen.
(Rig 1923. Pp. 25-36.)
45 . Kur\e Darstellung der geschichlichen Entwick-
lung der Handfeuerwaffen. P. 1 5 .
46. Cf. below, page 139.
47. 'Hauptsachlich franzosischen Meistern ist
die Vervollkomnung dieses Schlosses zu
danken, weshalb es auch fruher „fran-
zosisches Schloss" benannt wurde.' (Thier-
bach, 'fjber die Entwickelung des Stein-
schlosses'.) Zeitschrift fur historische Waffen-
kunde. Vol. 111. P. 311.
48. Boeheim, Handbuch der Waffenkunde. P.
453 ff-
49. Flintlock carbine. Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Waffensammlung. Inv. No. A
1454. Boeheim, Album Hervorragender Gegen-
stdnde aus der Waffensammlung des Aller-
hbchsten Kaiserhauses. (I) P. 19. PI. XXXVI:
6.
50. Boeheim, 'Die WafFe und ihre Einstige
Bedeutung im WelthandeP. Zeitschrift fur
historische Waffenkunde. Vol. I. P. 180.
51. Boeheim, 'Meister der Waffenschmiede-
kunst von XIV. bis ins XVIII'. Jahr-
hundert. P. 5 5 .
5 2. Demmin, Die Kriegswaffen in ihren geschicht-
lichen Entwickelungen. 3. ed. P. 961.
53. Jackson, European hand firearms.
54. Pollard, A history of firearms.
55. George, English pistols and revolvers. Pp. 4-7.
14
57
5 8.
59
56. For example Dillon, 'On the development
of gunlocks.' Archaeological Journal. Vol. L.
P. 127 and Ashdon, British and foreign
arms and armour. Pp. 369, 370.
'Proceedings ?t the Meeting of the
Archaeological Institute.' Archaeological
Journal. Vol. XVI. Pp. 353-56.
Communicated by Major Charles ffoulkes,
Tower of London.
ffoulkes, Inventory and survey of the armouries
of the Tower of London. Vol. II. P. 340. PI.
XXXIII.
60. Whitelaw, A treatise on Scottish hand firearms.
(Jackson, European hand firearms. P. 87.)
Cf. Axel Oxenstierna's pistols in the
Livrustkammare, Inv. No. 1726, 1727.
Livrustkammaren. Vdgledning 192 1. P. 61,
No. 467.
Guiffrey, Jnventaire general du mobilier de la
couronne, T. I 1. P. 59. 'Un petit fusil
irlandois [the Scottish weapons are con-
stantly called Irish in this inventory] de 4
61.
62
Definition. Terminology. Types of locks
pieds, le canon couleur d'eau, dore en trois
endroits sur le bout, le milieu et la culasse,
sur laquelle est grave 1614; la platine de
cuivre dore gravee en taille d'espargne, le
chien et la batterie gravez sur un bois
rouge enrichy de quelques ornemens de
pointes d'argent et d'une rose, et un char-
don sur la crosse.' (Cf. below, pp. 16-17.)
63. ffoulkes, Inventory and survey of the armouries
of the Tower of London. Vol. II. P. 340.
64. Meyrick, A critical inquiry into ancient
armour. Vol. III. P. 114.
65. Heroard, Journal sur fenfance et lajeunesse de
Louis XIII. I, II. Passim.
66. A Part II, dealing with the constructions
from the first percussion lock, appeared
in 1934.
67. Jahns, Entwicklungsgeschichte der alter Trut^-
ivaffen. P. 371.
68. Boeheim, 'Die Waffe und ihre einstige
Bedeutung im Welthandel.' Zeitschrift fur
historische Waffenkunde. Vol. I. P. 179.
15
CHAPTER TWO
The immediate precursors of the flintlock^,
the 'Mediterranean loc^ and the Netherlands
snaphance
Research into the earlier history of the
flintlock ceased to be concerned with
l vague theories when the extant early
flintlocks were published. The fact that Boeheim
and Gessler 1 called attention to the Zurich
master Felix Werder's garniture dated 1652
(PI. 32:2, 3) in Vienna and Zurich was the
beginning. In his Vagledningfor besokande i kungl
L,ivrustkammaren of 191 5 Rudolf Cederstrom
attributed, for stylistic reasons, a signed French
flintlock gun in the Livrustkammare (PI. 20:1)
to the 1 640s 2 , and in 1927 a gun dated 1636,
preserved in the Musee de L'Armee, Paris
(PL 17 :i) 3 was reproduced and described. In
the catalogue of a loan exhibition in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in
193 1 Stephen V. Grancsay dated a gun with a
very early flindock to about 1630 (PL 9)*. Even
if this attribution must be rejected — the gun is
undoubtedly some twenty years older — it
nevertheless showed that a flindock gun already
existed at the time to which so many of the
earlier writers ascribe its first invention.
Grancsay stated, referring to an inventory
of which he gave no details, that this gun
16
belonged to Louis XIII and Louis XIV of
France. This inventory was published by Jules
Guiffrey 5 . As it is an important source for the
knowledge of the work of earlier gunsmiths it
deserves to be mentioned in greater detail.
Guiffrey 6 states in the first part of his publica-
tion that the inventory was probably begun in
1663. The first lists were not, however, signed
by Du Metz de Rosnay, who was then 'inten-
dent et controleur general du mobilier de la
couronne', until 20 February 1673. The originals
are in four de luxe volumes in the Archives
Nationales (O 1 3330 — 3333). They are the first
in a series of inventories of the Royal Wardrobe
of which Guiffrey gives an explanatory list.
This includes, among others, a set of inven-
tories in eight volumes (O 1 3334 — 3341) signed
on 31 December 1721, by de Fontanieux. He
was probably Du Metz's second successor.
The fourth volume contains the list of the
Cabinet d* Amies in the same order as the
previous one, which it largely copies 7 . This
latter inventory was used to identify the arms
published in the illustrated catalogue of the
Musee de l'Armee of 1927 8 .
On 20 February 1673, the inventory con-
tained 337 items and on 30 January 1681, 347.
Four more items were added so that the
inventory of arms in the older folio ends with
No. 351. The inventory of 31 December 1729
contains 45 5 items with six added later. Apart
from marginal notes regarding objects lost or
destroyed, there are notes in the earlier inven-
tory of a rifle (No. 56), a sword (No. 305) and
a suit of armour (No. 325) belonging to Louis
XIII. These were sent in 1698 by the Jesuit
priest Bonnet (or Bouvet) as a gift to the
Emperor of China. There are similar notes
regarding two Turkish swords (Nos. 338, 340)
which were sent to Siam in 1686. A half-suit
(No. 332) was handed out on 18 December
1686 to 's. de Lagny', perhaps for a similar
purpose.
Most of the objects contained in the list
seem to have been old arms which were no
longer in use when the inventory was made,
and it may be supposed that the inventory
describes a collection preserved mainly for its
historical and material value. The items identi-
fied confirm this assumption and, what is more,
show that the most important part dates from
the reign of Louis XIII. As to the remainder,
a number of objects are attributed definitely to
certain owners. A suit of armour (No. 357) is
assigned to Philip Valois (d. 1350), but even
the description in the inventory shows that the
attribution is romantic. Other French kings
are with greater probability, and sometimes
with certainty, represented, such as Francis I,
Henry II, Louis XIII and Louis XIV. One of
the Polish kings, Casimir, is represented by a
sword, and of French, non royal personages
Cardinal Richelieu and an unnamed 'grand
ecuyer de France' are mentioned. Certain other
objects in the inventory can be attributed on
the evidence of inscriptions or heraldic bear-
ings.
Most of the items of the inventory are hand
firearms. For wheel-lock guns the term 'arque-
buse' is used consistently, and for guns with
snaphance or flintlock 'fusil'. No. 138 ('Dix
huit fu2ils francois') is the only item which
expressly describes the weapons as French.
Ten items are, however, stated to have been
The immediate precursors of the flintlock
made in France at a given place, and in the case
of twenty-eight items the French gunsmith's
name is given. Masters in Lorraine are included
as French. Actually the number of French arms
is almost certainly considerably larger. The
inventory refers to the manufacture of firearms
at the following places : Vitre, St Brieuc and St
Malo in Brittany, Cherbourg and Lisieux in
Normandy, Abbeville in Picardy (Launnoy in
Flanders), Sedan on the boundary of the then
Netherlands, Paris, Montmirail in Champagne,
Nancy in Lorraine, Dijon and Autun in
Burgundy and Grenoble in Dauphine. To them
we can add from other recorded signed arms
Metz 9 , Luneville 10 , Epinal 11 , Turenne 12 and
Fontenay 13 . According to Heroard 14 we can
add Rouen in Normandy and, according to
Gay 15 , Blamont near Luneville and also St
Etienne in the Loire. Gay's evidence as to this
last mentioned town is derived from Bellefort,
Cosmogr. T.I. p. 317 and refers to 1575. The
French manufacture of hand firearms was
evidently extensive and its products were dis-
tributed all over France. The firearms of
Grenoble manufacture 18 identified from the
inventory are by no means French in character,
and the output at Turenne can, on account of
the small size of both castle and town, scarcely
have been large. This information about arms
producing centres could certainly be supple-
mented. It seems fairly definite, however, that
the earlier French firearms manufacture was
centred in the north and was orientated coast-
wise in the northwest and, near the frontier,
northwards towards the Netherlands. The
firearms made in Lorraine, which still belonged
to Germany in the beginning of the seventeenth
century, were French in style and construction.
The inventory includes ten firearms with an
Italian signature, but only one with a German.
Scottish snaphance guns are described as 'a
l'Irlandois'. One gun (No. 130) is also indicated
as being a 'fusil a l'Angloise' (PL 7:1).
Three items are mentioned as Spanish, one
'choc a l'Espagnol' 17 , dated 161 3 (No. 358), a
second 'arquebuse a l'Espagnole' (No. 78) and
a third 'fusil espagnoP (No. 131). Other terms
used are 'arquebuse a l'allemand' (a German
wheel-lock gun) and 'cure' or 'de Turquie'.
*7
Flintlock
The significance of this term is not clear. It
is sometimes used for arms with Oriental
barrels, but also occurs in the case of a west
European matchlock target gun that belonged
to Cardinal Richelieu (Musee de l'Armee No.
M 37) 18 .
These details in the inventory relating to the
nationality of the firearms are among the few
which cannot be read on the weapons them-
selves and must therefore have been known by
this or some earlier recorder. The descriptions
are, however, those of the keeper of the ward-
robe, not of an arms expert. In other respects
they are rather brief. They nevertheless contain
sufficient information to enable the arms to be
identified, though the measurements they give
are not always reliable.
Certain identification is made possible by
the marking of each object. In the case of the
firearms this is done by means of figures (cf.
PI. 8:3) stamped into the underside of the stock
in front of, and above the trigger-guard. But
incised numbers also occur on the wheel-lock
gun No. 64, now in the Musee de la Porte de Hal,
Brussels (Inv. No. 94 D) and on the Scottish
pistol, No. 193, in the Pauilhac collection; in
this case the number is etched on the iron stock
(cf. PL 3 13). The series of figures struck in the
stock looks like this:
123456189c
This series has been drawn from the numbers
on guns in the Musee de l'Armee, Paris. These
figures are stamped quite deeply with thin,
sharp dies.
This old type of marking was also adopted at
other places. The armouries of Skokloster
afford many examples of this, so that there must
be agreement between number and the des-
cription in the inventory for identification 19 .
The investigation of the history of the
French Cabinet cf Amies is a fascinating and
interesting subject. It is certainly also an
arduous and time-absorbing task. Revolutions,
wars and the art trade have scattered parts of
it to every corner of the earth and it will
obviously be no easy task to find all that may
18
still be preserved. As to the date of its dis-
persal Mr Charles ffoulkes has stated that the
arms which are in the Tower of London and
Woolwich came from Paris in the years 181 5
and 1 8 16 after the Batde of Waterloo, doubdess
as booty. S. R. Meyrick's 20 statement that they
came from St Germain, which must have been
the armoury's last repository before being
dispersed, has already been quoted. It is
probable that it was kept in several places since
so much of it still remains in France. In this
connection Magne de Marolle's statement may
be recalled that he had seen old firearms in
the 'garde meuble' 21 .* The identification of arms
from this armoury is relatively easy, at least in
so far as the firearms are concerned, thanks to
their being marked with numbers. For the use
of those who may wish to make further research
in this direction a list is given here of identified
items 22 . It must not, however, be taken to be
complete even for the armouries and collections
that are mentioned, but only as a first step in
the identification of this armoury j\
Having given this explanation necessitated
by Grancsay's statement we can now return to
our subject.
It is commonly asserted that the flindock
developed from the snaphance. Among the
earlier writers, Schon holds the opinion that the
flintlock is a combination of the Spanish snap-
lock and the Netherlands snaphance lock, and,
among later writers, Pollard takes the same
view 23 . The combined pan-cover and the steel
should then have come from the Spanish snap-
lock. This detail is characteristic not only of
the type of lock which is regarded as a Spanish
national type, but also of other, closely con-
nected constructions whose origin and distri-
bution are still litde known, but which can
without doubt be regarded as 'Mediterranean
locks'. Spain and Italy head the list as producing
countries. As far as the Spanish snaplock is
concerned there are difficulties in tracing it far
enough back to place it before the invention of
the flindock.
The earliest dateable evidence is probably
Philippe Cordier Daubigny's engraving, which
is dated 1634 24 . This coincides in date with
Velasquez's portrait of Philip IV in hunting
attire (Louvre, Paris, and El Prado, Madrid). In
it the king carries a gun of much the same type
as Nos. 1 1 86 and 1 1 84 (PI. 5) in the Gewehr-
galerie, Dresden. The latter is reproduced by
M. v. Ehrenthal in the gallery catalogue of 1900
and is attributed to about 1680 25 . It is not
known on what authority this date is based.
The other gun appears to be older. In contrast
to the gun in Philip IV's portrait it has a half-
stock, but otherwise the two are rather alike.
It is very probable that we should date a com-
bined weapon, a horseman's hammer and
pistol, in the Wrangel Armoury at Skokloster 26
still earlier, perhaps the beginning of the
seventeenth century. The material available to
me at present is, however, too scanty and
uncertain to allow any definite conclusions to
be drawn.
In explaining the origin of the flintlock it
must be remembered that it is only the steel
that was borrowed from the 'Mediterranean
locks' and as it occurs on both Spanish and
Italian locks we can leave the question open
whether the source is to be sought in Spain or
in Italy. The oldest flindocks appear — as we
shall see — earlier than 161 5, the year in which
Louis XIII married the Infanta Anna and as a
result things Spanish became more fashionable
at the French court. In view of the intimate
relations between France and Italy in the time
of Maria de Medici it is tempting to speculate
whether the flintlock construction derived from
Italian firearms, but of this nothing is known.
According to Magne de Marolles 27 , who
based his statement on Excellency delta Caccia
by Cesare Solatio, a work printed in Rome in
1669, the practice of shooting flying birds
began in Italy about the year 15 10. Such a
novelty called for a new construction of lock,
as well as a stock of convenient form. What was
required was a half-cock lock which is really
what the Mediterranean snaplocks are. Much
the same applied in northern Europe. In
Stradanus's well-known series of engravings of
1 5 80 there are no flying shots, not even shots
at running animals. Magne de Marolles quotes
a poem by Claude Gauchet, Le plaisir des
champs, of 1583 28 which clearly shows that it
was not customary for French sportsmen of
The immediate precursors of the flintlock
that period to shoot birds on the wing or
running game. Light shot-guns suited for
shooting birds in flight are, nevertheless, to
be found among the oldest flintlock arms. It
is well known that this kind of sport continued
to be practised with flintlock guns.
The German writer Fleming as late as 171 9
regards shooting birds on the wing as a French
speciality 29 .
It is probable that we may see in the flindock
the French solution of the same problem that
was solved in the Mediterranean countries by
the adoption of the half-cock snaplock. It is
also reasonable to imagine that these construc-
tions originated within a relatively short period,
and this makes it difficult to prove that weapons
of one type or the other are the earlier. A pistol
in the Historisches Museum, Dresden (P. Z.
405. PI. 6:2-5) demonstrates the existence of
a 'Mediterranean lock' with a half-cock and
steel which is just as old as the earliest flintlock,
and perhaps older. The form of the lock-plate
has been borrowed from the French wheel-lock,
and the stock is likewise typical of that of an
early seventeenth century French wheel-lock
pistol. This stock was made for this lock,
because it lacks the hole for the wheel-axis
which would otherwise have been there, and
also the pivot-pin for the mainspring which,
in the case of the French wheel-lock arms,
passes right through the neck of the butt. The
existence of this pistol would seem to justify us
in assuming that the 'Mediterranean lock' with
steel and pan-cover in one piece was being
made in France just at the time we need. Until
the French provenance of this pistol (Inv. No.
F 329) of typically French shape and construc-
tion can be exacdy determined, caution must,
however, be exercised — especially when we
find in the same museum a pair of pistols dated
161 5 on the barrels and signed by the Dresden
master Georg Gessler. The decoration of the
barrels is of typical Saxon fashion. There is
reason to point out, however, that the proto-
type of this snaphance pistol must be French,
even if it was not actually made in France. It at
any rate strongly supports the assertion that the
flintlock steel was derived from the 'Mediter-
ranean locks'.
Flintlock
For a period only some decades later than
this snaphance pistol we can definitely prove
that locks of the same construction were manu-
factured in Italy. An example is a gun in the
Schwarzburg Arsenal (PL 6:1) signed 'Angone'
on the barrel and 'h g h' 30 on the stock.
Ossbahr regards the gun as Italian, but calls
the lock Spanish. It is open to doubt if this
attribution is correct. For the time being it
seems to be more correct to consider the lock
to be an Italian type which was later copied in
Spain.
The steel of the Dresden pistol is short and
broad, exactly as on the Spanish snaphance-
locks. The face of the steel is made in a separate
piece so as to be changeable, and fastened with
a screw, the head of which juts out from the
back of the steel. This construction is also found
on Spanish snaphance-locks, e.g. on the gunmen-
tioned above in the Gewehrgalerie, Dresden,
No. 1 1 84. The grooved surface — cross-grooved
on the Dresden pistol — suggests that the stone
screwed into the jaws of the cock was iron
pyrites.
The normal shape of steel for this kind of
'Mediterranean lock' is, however, long and
narrow. What is evidently the authentic lock
of an otherwise not entirely genuine pistol in
the Army Museum, Dresden (Inv. No. O IV:
7 d) has such a steel. Judging by stock and
trigger-guard, it dates from the 1620s. This
lock also has a separate screwed striking face
on the steel.
The second starting point for the fiindock is,
according to the writer quoted above, the
Netherlands snaphance-lock. The epithet
'Netherlands' is hardly adequate, as the region
of distribution of the construction is greater
than the Netherlands were when the fiindock
appeared during the last quarter of the sixteenth
century. The adoption of this term for the
design in question has, however, acquired a
certain usage which justifies its retention.
Schon reproduces, as has been mentioned
above, a Scottish snaphance as Netherlands
(Schon, Fig. 42). In view of this his statement
regarding the development of the fiindock from
the Netherlands snaphance is less comprehens-
ible. Should he, however, mean what the
present age understands by a Netherlands
snaphance, he is undoubtedly right.
Both of these snaphance constructions are
variants of one and the same type. The only
difference is that the Scottish lock has a simple
trigger sear, a snaphance sear, and perhaps
represents for this reason an older or simpler
stage. Furthermore, the cock has a jaw screw
passing from below with a nut on the top of the
upper jaw. The Netherlands snaphance has an
ordinary wheel-lock sear and sear support, and
the upper jaw of the cock is regulated by a screw
from above. In both instances a steering groove
is filed into the back of the upper jaw in which
a rib on the comb of the cock engages. On the
older Scottish snaphances the comb has a plume-
like spur pointing downwards at the back.
Whitelaw in his admirable treatise states that
the Scottish snaphance guns originated from
the Netherlands, but he does not say how this
took place 31 . He begins his description of
Scottish guns with the oldest one ascribed to
the 1 5 90s which already has the fully developed
Scottish form and decoration. A pistol in the
Tojhus Museum, Copenhagen (Inv. No. B 345.
PL 3:1, 2), seems, however, to have some con-
nection with the Netherlands. The neck of the
cock is only slightly curved, and what is more,
the shoulder of the cock and the steel spring
have the turned details typical of the Nether-
lands snaphances. They are also not unusual on
west European wheel-locks. The barrel is of
tower-like form with a ring reinforcement at the
muzzle. The stock, unfortunately, cannot be
relied upon. It is probably copied from the
original. This is known to have been done with
other arms in the same museum when the
originals were seriously infested with wood-
worm. Even if this is the case it can still give
valuable information. The butt has very much
in common with the fishtail butt that is typical
of a group of Scottish pistols; nor is it alto-
gether unlike the butt of the pistol in Captain
Thomas Lee's portrait in the exhibition of
English art at the Royal Academy in London,
1934, catalogue No. 126 32 .
Lee's pistol (PL 2:2) has the jaw screw of the
Netherlands snaphance, and as regards con-
struction (with the possible exception of the
20
Plate. 13.
France, Lisieux.
Beginning of
teenth century.
seven-
1 and 2. Wheel-lock pistol, marked '1 b', probably Jean
Bourgeoys of Lisieux, 161 5; Pauilhac Collection, Paris.
3 and 4. Details of Louis XIII' s wheel-lock gun with same
mark; London, Wallace Collection 1133.
Plate 14.
France.
Earlier half of
teenth century.
seven-
1-3. Flintlock gun signed 'Faict A Turene m.d.'; Windsor
Castle 316. 4. Rubbing of lock signed 'P. Cordier'; Paris,
Bibliotheque Nationale, Cabinet des estampes Le 24. 5.
Inside of lock of gun PL 15:1.
Plate 15.
France.
Earlier half of seven-
teenth century.
1. Flintlock guns, London, Tower Armouries XII, 1131.
2 and 4, Victoria and Albert Museum: M. 6-1 949. 3 and 5,
Tower Armouries XII, 1441.
Plate 1 6.
Western Europe.
1620-30S.
1. Matchlock musket, 1629; Paris, Musee de l'Armee M 35.
2. Gun with flint and matchlock, 1630s; Paris, Musee de
l'Armee M 411. 3-5. Charles X Gustavus's flintlock gun,
c. 1630; Stockholm, Livrustkammaren 1307.
Plate 17.
France.
1636, 1638 (?)
1 . Louis XIII's gun with flint and matchlock, signed 'F du
clos' (Francois Duclos, Paris), 1636; Paris, Musee de
l'Armee M 410. 2. Louis XIII's gun, 1638 (?); formerly
Berlin, Zeughaus A D 9404.
Plate i 8.
France.
1636, 1638 (?)
1. Lock of gun on PL 17:1. 2 and 3. Lock of gun on PL
17:2.
Plate
France.
1636, 1638 (?)
1. Gun PL 17:1 from above. 2. Detail of wheel-lock pistol,
signed 'F du clos' (Francois Duclos, Paris); New York,
Metropolitan Museum of Art 04. 3. 192. 3-5. Details of
gun on PL 17:2.
Plate 20.
5 J
Br
i
1
5
:■•
France, Paris.
1 640s.
1 and 5. Charles X Gustavus's gun by P. Thomas of Paris.
2-4. Queen Kristina's pistol, one of a pair, by P. Thomas
of Paris, garniture with preceding; Stockholm, Livrust-
kammaren 1347, 3983, 1608.
sear), stock, trigger and the absence of a trigger-
guard, is closely allied to a pistol in the Musee
de la Porte de Hal in Brussels (Inv. No.
115 D) 33 +.
Of English type and origin is the petronel in
the National Museum, Copenhagen (Section II.
Inv. No. 10428. PI. 2:1,3, 4), the stock of which
is signed 'd i' and dated 1584. The lock and
barrel are marked with the letters 'r a' and a
lily. This stamp is of the same kind as those
found on the Scottish snaphances.
There is literary evidence for the manufac-
ture of snaphances at Norwich in 1588. Even
so there were earlier places of manufacture 34 .
London and Greenwich § were the other centres
of arms manufacture, but this was also carried
on in the environs of London at Southwark,
Deptford and Erith. A Dutchman of the name
of Henrik was in charge of the manufacture of
firearms at the beginning of the seventeenth
century. Flemings had already been called in as
instructors of English gunsmiths 35 by Henry
VIII. The petronel in the National Museum,
Copenhagen, mentioned above, must be re-
garded as being of English manufacture, like-
wise a gun with the coat of arms of the Spens
family in the Livrustkammare (Inv. No. 1349) 38 ,
also dating from the close of the sixteenth
century. Its decoration is very similar to that of
the pistol reproduced in Captain Lee's portrait.
As a purely English type we may also regard
the 'dog-locks' which are mentioned chiefly in
the English literature of the subject. They have
steel and full-cock in the ordinary manner of
the Netherlands snaphance and half-cock
formed by tumbler and nose of the sear. It is
necessary to distinguish between the older type
constructed in this way and illustrated by a
pistol in the Renwick Collection (PL 4:1, 4)||
from the 1620S-30S 37 and a later type dating
from the middle of the century. In this latter
type a hooked catch (dog) engaging the heel
of the cock has been added and has given the
construction its name. Such a lock is mounted
in a musket stock in the Windsor Castle collec-
tion of arms (PI. ^.z) 36 . This stock is dated 161 9,
but the date is that of the stock, not that of the
lock. This is pointed out here as this date
cannot serve as evidence of the age of the lock,
The immediate precursors of the flintlock
which was fitted later. Full agreement in date
between stock and lock exists, however, on an
otherwise defective gun in the Livrustkammare
( pl - 4:3» 5); this dates from the middle of the
seventeenth century.
The English 'dog-locks' have been dealt
with in detail by George 39 . The presence
of a dog-catch implies a date later than the
origin of the flintlock. No examples of the
older type are known which are early enough
to have influenced the origin of the flint-
lock.
Even if there is every indication that the
Netherlands snaphances deserve their epithet,
no such weapon from the period before 1600
has, as far as is known, been yet identified. A
gun with such a lock from the end of the
sixteenth century in the Livrustkammare (Inv.
No. 125 1) 40 is called Scottish in Gustavus
Adolphus's inventory, although it otherwise
looks continental^. It should perhaps be
pointed out that the form of the stock below
the lock is similar to the early Scottish pistol in
the Tojhus Museum. The pistol in the Musee de
la Porte de Hal, which also dates from the end
of the sixteenth century, was probably made on
the Continent to the south-east of the English
Channel. The many details which this type of lock
has in common with the wheel-lock also suggest
its Continental origin.
When we come to the seventeenth century
the probability of the Netherlands snaphance-
lock's manufacture on the Continent becomes
a certainty.
Jacob De la Gardie's armoury inventory of
1628 41 describes as 'ny nederlandsch' a target
gun, which has found its way by unknown
routes, but most recently via Algiers to the
Musee de l'Armee, Paris (Inv. No. M 688.
PL 7:2-5). Count De la Gardie's coat of arms
(he became a count in 161 5) is engraved on the
butt-plate (PL 7:3). This is of copper with an
oval panel of mother-of-pearl inserted for the
escutcheon and coronet. In the years 161 6 and
1617a Netherlands embassy visited Jacob De la
Gardie in Russia and it seems that the gun
might be attributed to that period. Otherwise
it would appear to date from the 1620s.
A gun with a Netherlands snaphance in the
21
Flintlock
Wrangel Armoury at Skokloster (No. 298) can
be identified as of Netherlands origin by its
butt with a supporting rest. There are such rests
on several target guns and cross-bows of defi-
nitely Netherlands provenance. The Musee de
la Porte de Hal, Brussels, and the Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam, provide relevant material for
study. There was more such material in the
Claes collection, Antwerp, now dispersed. To
this can be added representations of a sculp-
tured and gilded stone from the Amsterdam
city gate on the Utrecht road, known from
Rembrandt's 'Night-Watch', the Klovenierdoe-
len. The stone is preserved in the city museum
(the collections in St Antoniswaag) and shows
two crossed target guns with matchlocks and
exacdy the same stocks and trigger-guards as
the Skokloster gun just mentioned.
The existence of the Netherlands snaphance
in Italy may be due to indirectly transferred
Dutch influence. Arms of Italian design were,
it is true, produced also outside Italy. We
cannot therefore be absolutely certain that the
pistol No. 119 D in the Musee de la Porte de
Hal, Brussels, is of Italian origin even if it is
Italian in design. It dates from before the middle
of the seventeenth century — probably in the
1630s — and may be regarded as a precursor of
the Italian flintlocks. The latter also were
offshoots from the north.
The Netherlands snaphance probably found
its way to Russia through the Dutch artisans
who worked in the service of the Czar and the
aristocracy. No. B 345 in the Tojhus Museum
with stock of west European form belongs to
this group. There are several others in the
armoury in Moscow 42 . Some of these are repro-
duced in Lenz's work on the Scheremetew
Armoury 43 . The group is also represented in
the Livrustkammare by three guns which the
Swedish envoy in Moscow, John Gabriel
Sparfvenfeldt, presented to Charles XI and
Prince Charles (XII) 44 (Inv. Nos. 1699, 1700
and 3897).
The Netherlands snaphance was widely used
for military purposes. Count John of Nassau-
Siegen states in 1608 in his Discours das it^ige
Teutsche Kriegswesen belangend (Dillenburg
Archives, Wiesbaden, No. K 398), that the
dragoons (tragous), a type of troops common
in France and the Netherlands, had muskets
with Tiier oder Schottische Schloss' 45 . The use
of the adjective 'Schottische' so early in the
century is worthy of notice.
An English price-list for gunsmiths of the
year 163 1 48 includes, amongst other things,
'horseman's pistols fitted with snaphances' and
'carabin with a snaphance'. Judging by the
opinion expressed by Pollard 47 , Cruso in Mili-
tant Instructions for the Cavallerie (1632) probably
reproduces military snaphance guns. In 1625
Markham writes in his Souldier's Accidence that
the modern cavalry of that day ought to be
armed with 'pistols, firelocks (if it may be), but
snaphances where they are wanting' 48 . There is
good reason to consider that these English
military snaphances were dog-locks.
The Netherlands snaphance survived even
after the flintlock became widely known.
Examples can be cited from the Berlin Zeughaus
and the Rotunda at Woolwich. The Tojhus
Museum, Copenhagen, preserves two guns
(Inv. Nos. B655, B656) with Ebbe Ulfeld's
name and coat of arms and the date 1649. One
has a perfectly typical Netherlands snaphance.
Even after the tumbler and sear were altered to
the flintlock construction the sliding pan-cover
and separate steel of the Netherlands snaphance
were retained in some quarters. The Moroccan
types of the construction have survived over a
very long period.
If we are to accept the idea that the flindock
evolved from the Netherlands snaphance it is of
importance to prove that this occurred on
French soil. A starting point can be found in
the already mentioned gun No. 130 (PL 7:1)
from the Cabinet d'Armes now in Mr William
G. Renwick's possession. The gun, dated 1622
on the pan-cover, was exhibited in 193 1 at a
loan exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York 48 . The inventory describes
this gun as 'un fusil a l'Angloise'. It would be
well to remember that this was written some
time during the decade 1663-73 and probably
an expression of the writer's opinion of the
existence of ancient constructions on the other
side of the Channel. It is in any case interesting
to observe that nowhere in this inventory do
22
we find the epithet 'hollandois' for any 'fusil',
but, on the contrary, evidence that the type is
regarded as being English. A comparison with
the barrel of the Danish National Museum's
petronel (PI. 2:1, 3, 4) is both interesting and
fruitful. Both are trumpet shaped, bulging
round the muzzle with a transverse band behind
the latter. The chamber is bordered in front by
two such bands. It is of the same shape as that
on the barrel of the Spens gun in the Livrust-
kammare (Inv. No. 1349) and is closely related
to the barrels on Scottish pistols. In other
respects the gun might well fit in with Con-
tinental production, especially the decoration
of the stock**. Because of its presence in the
inventory of the Cabinet d'Armes the gun has
a certain French history. It is of a later date,
however; than the earliest period of the flint-
lock. The fact that it was not the only one is
shown by a gun formerly in the Zeughaus (Inv.
No. A D 8664), now in the Polish Army
Museum, which is almost identical in form. The
trigger-guard differs slightly from that on Mr
Renwick's gun. Both the locks have the same
safety device and were made by the same smith,
this is shown by the mark stamped in both
instances at the foot of the plate between the
cock and the shoulder of the cock. The round
and convex fence mounted on the pan of the
Berlin gun bears the Bourbon- Conde coat of
arms underneath the crown of the royal princes.
This heraldic coat of arms and in particular
its position afford good grounds for the belief
that the gun No. 142 of the Cabinet d'Armes,
which is described as bearing the arms of
France on the pan, had a Netherlands snap-
hance 60 . This would also provide the requisite
evidence that locks of this construction were
manufactured in France, as the gun is said to
have been made at Montmirail. Seeing that the
drafter of the inventory regards this, but not the
gun of 1622, as 'ancien', we may perhaps
consider that this weapon dates from a period
prior to the origin of the flintlock.
Dating from a later epoch, the early 1630s,
is a gun in the Berlin Zeughaus, Inv. No. A D
8693. It was, as far as can be judged, made in a
district of French culture and has a lock which,
taking it as a whole, is a Netherlands snaphance
The immediate precursors of the flintlock
though it shows certain differences. Of the
same period is the French gunsmith Francois
Poumerol's poem referred to above. In it
he mentions the Netherlands snaphances in
such terms that we must presume they
were usual on French soil both then and
earlier.
Editor's Notes
* For a reference to the firearms in the Garde
Meuble, see J. F. Hayward, The Art of the
Gunmaker, Vol. II, p. 30.
t The firearms listed in the appendix as in
the collection of the Berlin Zeughaus were
nearly all lost in 1945. Many of them are
now in the Polish Army Museum.
X There is some reason to think that this
pistol is, in fact, of English manufacture.
§ Greenwich war the site of the Royal
Armoury established by Henry VIII, but
there is no evidence for the manufacture of
firearms there. Southwark was also for a
time the site of an armourers' workshop,
while Erith and Deptford were mainly
concerned with cannon founding.
|| The English lock of the first half of the
seventeenth century is not now generally
known as a dog-lock, as it does not
necessarily have the dog-catch from which
the name is derived. The dog-catch is not
necessarily a development of the middle of
the century, but seems to have been more
or less contemporary with the first intro-
duction of the lock, see J. F. Hayward, The
Art of the Gunmaker, Vol. I, p. 275.
U This gun is, in fact, without doubt English.
Dr Lenk was unaware that an important
group of English snaphance firearms exists,
sufficient enough, indeed, to justify the
French Cabinet d'Armes description of a
gun with this action as 'fusil a l'angloise'.
For a discussion of the English snaphance,
see J. F. Hayward, 'English Firearms of
the sixteenth century', Journal of the Arms
and Armour Society, Vol. Ill, p. 117 ff
** It is, however, established that bone inlay
was also a feature of high quality English
firearms of the sixteenth century. There is
23
Flintlock
at present no means of distinguishing
between Dutch and English firearms
equipped with snaphance ignition. See
J. F. Hay ward, The Art of the Gunmaker,
Vol. I, p. 128.
Notes to Chapter Two
1 . Boeheim, Handbuch der Waffenkunde. P. 464.
Gessler, 'Der Gold- und "Buchsenschmied"
Felix Werder von Zurich, 15 91-1673'.
An^eiger fur Schwei^erische Altertumskunde .
Neue Folge. Vol. XXIV. Pp. 113-17-
2. Livrustkammaren. Vagledning 19 ij. P. 95.
No. 380.
3. Le Musee de l'Armee, Armes et ar mures
anciennes. T. II. Pp. 133, 134. PI. 41, 41 bis
and 46.
4. Grancsay, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Loan Exhibition of European arms and armor.
P. 66. No. 252. Reproduced earlier in
Bulletin 1927 of the same museum. P. 198.
5 . Guiffrey, Inventaire general du mobilier de la
couronne. T. II. Pp. 43-84.
6. Guiffrey, Inventaire general du mobilier de la
couronne. T. I. Avertissement.
7. A copy of this has been placed at my
disposal by Captain R. Villemin and M.
Georges Pauilhac.
8. Le Musee de l'Armee, Armes et ar mures
anciennes. T. II.
9. Wheel-lock gun by Jean Henequin 1621.
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum. PI. 104. Cf.
Hoopes, 'Ein Beitrag zum franzosischen
Radschloss'. Zeitschrift fur historische Waffen-
und Kostiimkunde. Vol. XIV. Pp. 50-53.
10. Wheel-lock gun by Jean Simonin 1627.
Le Musee de l'Armee. Armes et armures
anciennes. T. II. Pp. 130, 131. PI. XL.
11. Wheel-lock gun by Qaude Thomas, Epinal
1623. Counts of Erbach's armoury. Cata-
logue of a valuable collection of armour and
weapons, which will be sold by auction by Messrs.
Sotheby & Co . . . on . . . July, 1930. P. 17.
No. 15. Reproduced on p. 26. There
was previously in this armoury a pair of
pistols which made up a garniture with this
gun.
12. Flintlock gun. PL 14:1-3. Laking, The
armoury of Windsor Castle. European section.
P. 100.
13. Post, 'Ein Paar franzosischer Radschloss-
pistolen von Isaak Courdier Daugbigny'.
Zeitschrift fur historische Waff en- und Kostiim-
kunde. Vol. XIII. Pp. 235-38. Post, 'Ein
Paar Steinschlosspistolen von Isaac Cordier
Daubigny'. Zeitschrift fur historische Waffen-
und Kostiimkunde. Vol. XIV. Pp. 54, 55.
14. Heroard, Journal. T. II. P. 86.
15. Gay, Glossaire Archeologique, T. I. P. 68.
16. Guiffrey, Inventaire general du mobilier de la
couronne. T. II. P. 69. No. 203. Now in the
Renwick collection.
17. 'Choc' is a small light gun.
18. Le Musee de l'Armee. Armes et armures
anciennes. T. II. Pp. 138, 139. PL XLI.
19. The conformity between the numbers and
the inventory must have been known to the
publisher of the Paris Museum album. The
writer had however, irrespective of this, an
opportunity to find this conformity when
visiting the Berlin Zeughaus in 193 1 and as
a result identify in other places arms from
the scattered French Cabinet d' Armes.
20. Meyrick, A critical inquiry into antient armour.
Vol. III. P. 114.
21. Magne de Marolles, Ea chasse au fusil. P. 63,
note.
22. Appendices. P. 167.
23. Pollard, A history of firearms. P. 38.
24. Boeheim, 'Die Luxusgewehr — Febrication
in Frankreich im XVH und XVIII. Jahr-
hundert'. Blatter fur Kunstgewerbe 1886. P. 34.
Fig. 1. The year is altered to 1654 on the
original of Boeheim's reproduction. Lenk,
'De aldsta flintlasen'. Konsthistorisk tidskrift
III.?. 132.
2 5 . Ehrenthal, Fuhrer durch die Konigliche Gewehr-
Galerie ^u Dresden. P. 62.
26. Lenk, 'De aldsta flintlasen, deras dekora-
tion och dekoratorer'. Konsthistorisk tids-
krift 1934. P. 124. Fig. 3.
27. Magne de Marolles, Ea chasse au fusil. P. 41.
28. Ibid. Pp. 42-45.
29. Fleming, Der vollkommene teutsche Jager.
I. P. 341.
30. Ossbahr, Das furstliche Zeughaus in Schwar^-
burg. P. 93. No. 988.
24
3 1 . Whitelaw, A treatise on Scottish hand firearms.
(Jackson, European hand firearms. P. 5 7.)
32. The portrait has long been known and
referred to in the literature of the history
of arms (Dillon, 'On the development of
gunlocks'. Archaeological Journal, Vol. L.
1893. P. 127.) It bears the inscriptions
'Sr Henry Lee of Ireland' and 'Aetatis
suae 43, An Do 1594'. Sir James Mann
informed me that these were added
later.
33. Lenk, 'De aldsta flintlasen deras dekoration
och dekoratorer'. Konsthistorisk tidskrijt
I934-V- 124- Fig. 2.
34. Hewitt, Ancient armour and weapons in
Europe, Supplement. P. 657.
35. Boeheim, 'Die Waffe und ihre einstige
Bedeutung im Welthandel'. Zeitschrijt fur
historische Waffenkunde. Vol. I. Pp. 178,
1 79. Greener, The gun and its development.
P. 208.
36. Livrustkammaren. Vdgledning 1921. P. 86.
No. 693.
37. Communicated by Mr William G. Renwick
who has also sent photographs.
38. Laking, The armoury of Windsor Castle.
European Section. P. 115. No. 364.
39. George, English pistols and revolvers. Pp.
9-15.
40. Cederstrom and Malmborg, Den dldre
Eivrustkammaren 16)4. P. 59. PL 54.
The immediate precursors of the Tint lock
41. Lund University Library. De la Gardie
Collection. De la Gardie 9 d.
42. Opis moskovskoj oru^ejnej palati. Passim.
43. Lenz, Die Waffensammlung des Graf en S. D.
Scheremetew in St. Petersburg. Pp. 145-55
PI. XII, XIII, XV.
44. Livrustkammaren. Vdgledning 19 21. Pp.
85, 98. No. 688, 689, 782.
45. Jahns, Geschichte der Kriegswissenschaften II.
P. 915.
46. Meyrick, A critical inquiry into antient
armour. III. P. 86.
47. Pollard, A history of firearms. Pp. 45, 46.
48. Meyrick, A critical inquiry into antient
armour. III. Pp. 87, 88.
49. Grancsay, Loan exhibition of European
arms and armours. Pp. 65, 66. No. 251.
50. Guiffrey, Inventaire general du mobilier de la
couronne. T. II. P. 60. Un fusil ancien, le
cannon tres beau, et riche, couleur d'eau,
la culasse a huit pans avec quatre fils
d'argent, enrichie d'ornemens d'or et
d'argent de rapport, le milieu rond orne de
deux trophees d'armes et le bout de quatre
fils d'argent, de coeurs entflamez et de
fleches entrelassees de palmies; la platine
unie, sur le bassinet de laquelle est applique
l'escu de France, a simple couronne, monte
sur un bois rouge orne de compartimens
de petit fil de cuivre et pointes d'argent,
long de 4 pieds ; sur le couvercle du bassinet
est grave fait a Montmirail.
25
CHAPTER THREE
The origin of the flintlock^. The flintlock^
with separate buffer on the plate
The most reasonable explanation of the
origin of the flintlock has been given by
C. A. Ossbahr. He writes : 'The flintlock,
an improvement made upon the Netherlands
snaphance in France in the 1630S-40S, is com-
posed of the same parts as the latter. But
whereas the sear in the snaphance engages the
foot of the cock through an opening in the
lock-plate, in the flintlock this part is located on
the inside of the plate. In addition, the "half-
cock" has been added 1 .' Ossbahr does not
mention the steel.
We continue our investigation along the
path thus indicated and begin by describing
the construction of the Netherlands snaphance
(cf. PI. 7). The pan is attached to the lock-plate
by a 'pan screw' passing through from the
outside and placed behind the pan. Externally
this pan terminates in a flash-guard or fence,
which is usually round on earlier weapons but
can also be square. Subsequently it is often in
the form of a shell. The pan-cover is borrowed
directly from the wheel-lock. It slides on the
upper edge of the lock-plate and is attached in
a groove underneath the plate to an arm on the
inside of the latter. The lower end of the arm is
pivoted on a screw fixed from the inside. A
26
spring is screwed over the arm from the inside.
The steel and steel-spring (the latter with the
'u' bend to the front) are attached from the out-
side of the plate. These screws are often
— perhaps almost always — connected by a
bridle. The cock and its axle are made in one
piece. The axle passes through a hole in the
lock-plate, the part inside the plate being of
square section. The square part of the axle
passes through a tumbler which is fixed to the
axle by a pin passing through the latter. A spur
projects outwards and downwards at the foot
of this tumbler. The long arm of the main-
spring presses down on this spur. A forward
pointing sear is attached by a pin at the top of
the tumbler. The other end of the sear is
engaged by the arm of the pan-cover when
the cock is set and pushes back the pan-cover
when the cock drops. This sear attached to the
tumbler is of spring-steel. If the pan-cover is
pushed on to the pan when the cock is lowered
the sear slides over the arm of the pan-cover.
The sear and its arm are also taken from
the wheel-lock. The nose of the main sear
passes through a hole in the lock-plate and
rests above the foot or tail of the cock. The
lower jaw of the cock is fixed. The upper jaw
is grooved at the back; the spur of the cock
runs in this groove. The spur is straight at the
back and ends in a backward scroll. The jaw-
screw, with a grooved head, is actuated from
above. To prevent the cock from striking the
pan in its fall it is checked by a buffer or
shoulder fixed with one or two screws from the
outside. The lock is, as a rule, attached with
three screws. These, as well as those holding
the parts of the lock, pass right through the
lock-plate.
The mechanism of the Netherlands snap-
hance is undoubtedly practical. When the
weapon is loaded it can be rendered safe in a
similar way to the wheel-lock by moving the
steel forward. The pan-cover can be moved
over the pan even if the cock is lowered for
it is held at a suitable distance from the pan
by the shoulder. When the steel is dropped
forward and the cock rests on the shoulder the
lock is at rest. Some of the existing guns also
have the ordinary wheel-lock safety which
stops the sear-arm with a hook. The main
advantage of this device is that when the
weapon is held at the ready it can be discon-
nected by a simple movement of the thumb.
The disadvantages of the construction are, like
those of the wheel-lock, that it is complicated.
The mechanism of the flintlock is likewise a
simplification of the older construction.
The change-over from the Netherlands snap-
hance to the flindock can be described more
fully as follows: the sliding pan-cover of the
Netherlands snaphance and a steel mounted on
an arm are exchanged for a pan-cover and steel
in one piece (a battery or frizzen). This is forced
open by the pressure of the falling cock. The
flash-guard disappears, but the steel-spring is
retained, though without a bridle. The steel is
borrowed directly from the 'Mediterranean
lock'.
Two notches are filed in the tumbler, which
no longer needs a sear for the pan-cover. A
sear moving vertically and giving full and half-
cocks by a nose engaging in the two notches is
substituted for the horizontally moving one. A
transitional form with only one bent is hardly
to be expected as the construction must have
been devised in order to provide a solution of
The origin of the flintlock
the half-cock problem. There are, in fact,
several examples of one-bent tumblers, but
these belong to other types of locks, such as the
Nordic snaphances with the main-spring on the
inside of the lock-plate. They can be explained
as derivations from the flindock.
The vertically moving sear which engages in
a notch in a tumbler can hardly be regarded as
a new invention but is merely derived from the
crossbow lock.
The most radical simplification was effected
by the adaptation of the steel. This dispenses
with the arm of the pan-cover and its spring,
as well as with the secondary sear projecting
from the tumbler.
The function of the steel is to be opened by
the cock so that the sparks can reach the
priming powder. The cock cannot therefore be
lowered completely as it can on the Netherlands
snaphance when the weapon is set. At the same
time the position of the cock at full bent
involves a risk. This risk is avoided by provid-
ing the half-cock bent. The latter is so consti-
tuted that the nose of the sear cannot be raised
from the half-cock bent by pressure of the
trigger on the sear.
The flindock consists of two basic features,
viz. the half-cock formed by a vertically moving
sear engaging in a notch filed in the tumbler
and the combined steel and pan-cover. Other
means have, however, been adopted to provide
the half-cock in the cultural sphere with which
we are now concerned. In doing so the hori-
zontal action of the sear has been retained. The
English dog-locks have already been men-
tioned. The half-cock has also been obtained
by means of a dog-catch alone. Two guns dating
from the 1630S-40S in the Musee de l'Armee
(Inv. No. M 530) are examples of this. The
next step forward was to provide the dog-
catch as an additional safety device. This
construction was widely adopted in the Swedish
military flintlocks. The Kabyle gun (Schon,
Fig. 41) also forms the half-cock with a catch.
Judging also by a pair of Ripoll pistols of early
seventeenth century type in the Tojhus
Museum, Copenhagen (Inv. Nos. B 342, B 343),
and a similar one in the Pauilhac collection,
Paris, previously in the Estruch collection 2 ,
27
Flintlock
this construction was introduced in the earlier
half of the seventeenth century.
Another solution of the half-cock problem,
while retaining the horizontal action of the
sear, is achieved by lengthening the sear. This
passes through the lock-plate and serves as a
rest for the breast of the cock at half-cock. The
full-cock is then provided on the tumbler.
Earlier examples of this construction are one of
Queen Kristina's guns in the Livrustkammare
(Inv. No. 1280) 3 which should probably be
dated to the 1630s, though this date is uncer-
tain, and a gun with half-cock lock in the same
collection, Inv. No. 1333 (PI. 39:3, 5. Cf. below,
p. 65)*. The construction can be found in later
Scottish weapons (Livrustkammaren Inv. Nos.
1742, 1743, 4925, 4926) and similar construc-
tions in many Spanish and Italian firearms
dating from the close of the eighteenth century
(Livrustkammaren Inv. No. 5323, gun by
Mariano of Naples) 6 . This construction, like
the dog-catch, is probably of more recent origin
than the flintlock.
The close connection of the flintlock with
the Netherlands snaphance is evident from a
literary source which has already been briefly
mentioned (p. 6). This source proves that the
construction is earlier than the 1636 gun of the
Musee de l'Armee, Paris. The gunsmith
Francois Poumerol presented a gun and a
pistol to Louis XIII. At the same time he
presented a poem which concludes with a hope
that he might be allowed to enter the king's
service. These Quatrains au Roy were printed
in 163 1 by Pierre Rocolet 'au Palais'.
Poumerol states that he is over fifty years of
age. He was apprenticed at the age of twelve,
consequently not later than 1593, and must
therefore have been an expert gunmaker just at
the time at which the invention of the flintlock
can be expected.
The character of the poem as a petition is of
less interest. It seems, however, to have led
to his employment, not by the king but by his
brother, Gaston, 'Monsieur', later Duke of
Orleans 5 .
These Quatrains au Roy deal chiefly with the
art of judging the quality of a firearm and how
to preserve its splendour and quality. They
28
show that the writer prefers simple weapons,
and that he has a good knowledge of military
arms and is conversant with guns both 'a rouet'
and 'fusils'. Among other things he gives the
following information :
Et, pour ne rien celer en se discours des
armes,
Parlant des pistolets, je diray nettement
Que je suis estonne qu'en ce temps plein
d'alarmes
L'usage des fuzils s'y voit aucunement.
Car, tant que la guerre est, je ne puis me
resoudre,
A faire des fuzils que pour le cabinet.
Le feu s'y fait trop haut au-dessus de la
poudre,
Et s'escarte en tombant autour du bassinet.
En outre ce deffaut, un autre est au couvercle
Qui ne s'ouvre en haussant qu'apres le coup du
chien ;
Ce coup fasisant le feu, ce feu trouve un
obstacle
Qui l'empesche d'entrer ou la poudre se tient.
Et neantmoins, au temps d'une paix asseure,
Pour la chasse, en tous lieux unis raboteux,
Les fuzils sont aisez et de longue duree;
Mais au besoin de Mars ils sont un peu
douteux.
A ces fusils nouveaux il y faut une pier re
Mince et large, a l'esgal de la piece devant
Et, selon qu'elle s'use (ouvrant ce qui la serre)
II en faut mettre une autre, ou le tourner
souvent.
Les fusils a l' antique, estant de bonne force,
Le bassinet s' ouvrant a temps et par ressort,
Semblent estre meilleurs, d'autant que sur
l'amorce
Le coup du feu s'y fait plus a plomb et plus
fort.
Mais le plus asseure, ou le plus j 'acquiesce,
C'est quand le bassinet est libre au coup de
feu,
Plate
21.
France, Paris.
1 640s.
1. Detail of gun on PL 20:1. 2-5. Details of pistol on PL
20:2. 6 and 10. Pistol by Laon (Langon) of Paris; Lowen-
burg Castle W. 1 1 5 7. 7-9. Pistol, one of a pair, Devie of
Paris; Dresden, Historisches Museum P. Z. 272.
Plate 22.
France.
1630-40S.
1. Lock of Gun on PL 20:1. 2 and 3. Rubbings of lock-
plates; Berlin, Staaliche Kunstbibliothek O.S. 825.
Plate 23.
France.
1 640s.
1-5. Rubbings of lock-plates. 1. C A Bergerac', 2. 'Mayer
a Lyon', 3 and 4. 'Raguet'; Berlin, Staatliche Kunstbiblio-
thek O.S. 825. 6. Lock of pistol on PI. 21:7.
Plate 24.
France.
1630-40S.
1. Pistol with butt-cap and ramrod pipes of stamped
silver sheet, 1630s. 2-4. Pistols with butt-caps of chased
silver and stamped or engraved ramrod pipes 1630-40S.
1-3; Skokloster, Wrangel Armoury 61, 70 and 68. 4; Dres-
den, Gewehrgalerie 15 51.
Et que ce coup bas n'hausse, ains pousse I'avant-
pike.
Le feu s'y fait plus bas, et bas s'escarte peu 6 .
The importance of these quatrains lies in the
fact that the writer knows of two kinds of
'fusil'; the one 'nouveau', the flintlock, the pan-
cover of which is raised when struck by the
cock, the other 'a Pantique' the Netherlands
snaphance the pan of which is opened by a
spring.
Now if this theory of the origin of the flint-
lock, which is supported by Poumerol's
Quatrains, is correct, it should be possible to
find extant flintlock arms which are clearly
linked to the Netherlands snaphances. Such do
exist and the link is the shoulder of the cock.
The Hermitage Museum in Leningrad possesses
a flindock gun (Inv. No. F 281, PL 8) which is
reproduced by E. Lenz in his Collection d'armes
de I'Ermitage imperial, St Petersburg, 1908,
PI. 29. The text states that the gun bears the
coat of arms of France and Navarre and that,
according to tradition, it had belonged to Louis
XIII of France. The same author's catalogue 7
issued the same year in Russian gives the
following details regarding the gun: that it
came from Prince Conde's armoury at Chantilly,
that the barrel is blued and has golden orna-
ments, that the stock is inlaid with mother-of-
pearl, silver and brass, that the coats of arms of
France and Navarre are applied on a round
plate on the small of the butt, that a plate at the
trigger-guard contains an engraved inscription,
'M. Le Bourgeoys a Liseul', and that a number
'1 5 2' is cut into the stock. (It will be seen from
PL 8:3 that the number is stamped in the stock
in front of the trigger-guard.) If we take this
number as a clue and look up the inventory of
the French Cabinet d'Armes we find the
following description under No. 152: 'Un beau
fuzil de 4 pieds 3 pouces, le canon rond avec un
petit pan dore en couleur d'eau sur le bout, et
sur la cullase de rinseaux; le platine couleur
d'eau, gravee en blanc, ayant un rond dore uny
sur le milieu, sur un bois de poirier, qui forme
un pied de biche dans la crosse, fait par
Bourgeois a Lizieux' 8 . The inventory of 1729
adds: 'au haut de laquelle (la crosse) est une
The origin of the flintlock
plaque de cuivre ciselee et gravee de rinceaux
dores, avec les armes de France et de Navarre' 9 .
The identity is unquestionable.
A gun of the same construction and same
decoration is preserved in the Musee de
l'Armee, Paris (No. M 529, PL 1 1 :i, 2). It has a
heavy hog's back barrel, the gold decoration
against a light blue (couleur d'eau) ground,
producing a charming colour contrast. The lock
has many features similar to the gun in the
Hermitage Museum: the form of the cock and
the way it is attached, the shoulder on the plate,
the high steel terminating in a scroll, the out-
ward bulge at the bottom of the lock-plate and
the pointed finish at each end as also the round
medallion under the pan. The differences are:
the shorter arm of the steel and the angular
outlines of the Paris gun. The etched decoration
of the lock-plate is of the same type in both
instances. The same kind of ornament is also
painted in gold on the butt of the gun in the
Musee de l'Armee. In addition it is decorated
with thin inlaid silver fines. A comparison
between the decoration of this weapon and that
on still another flindock gun in the same
museum (Inv. No. M435: PL 11:3, 12:3-6),
signed 'M. le bourgeoys' at the foot of the butt-
plate, leaves no room for doubt that M 5 29 was
also decorated by the same hand. No. M 43 5
will be dealt with below. The original source of
these guns can then be located in Lisieux, in
the eastern part of the Department of Calvados.
Their number can be increased by a matchlock
gun in the Musee de l'Armee (Inv. No. M 369,
PL 12 :2) 10 .
As the above has given us a name and a place
for the earliest flindocks it would be most desir-
able if a thorough investigation of their manu-
facture could be made. This, unfortunately, is
rather a large undertaking. It would first mean
going through a great amount of material in the
Municipal Archives at Lisieux. But it is to be
hoped that such scattered notices as can be
collected will be compiled and published now
that attention has been called to the importance
of such research.
Georges Huard has contributed a consider-
able amount of interesting information 11 in a
number of articles on Marin Le Bourgeoys, his
29
Flintlock
life and work. Previously it was known that
Le Bourgeoys was one of 'les illustres' who
had received a 'brevet de logement' on 22
December 1608, in the recently completed
Louvre Gallery. He was at that time 'peintre et
vallet de chambre et ouvrier en globes mouvans,
sculpteur, et aultres inventions mecaniques' 12 .
According to M. B. Fillon, Marin Le
Bourgeoys was probably born in the middle of
the sixteenth century, and he became 'peintre
ordinaire' on 1 1 June 1 5 89, to the Governor of
Normandy, Frangois de Bourbon, Duke of
Montpensier (d. 1592). He became 'vallet de
chambre' to Henry IV in 1598, and in this
capacity and as painter to the King he appears
on the wage lists right up to the end of 1633 13 .
Huard declares that Marin Le Bourgeoys
belonged to a family of locksmiths, watch-
makers, cross-bow makers and gunsmiths resi-
dent in Lisieux. He also seems to have worked
there all his life, in spite of the royal favour
and the dwelling granted to him in the Louvre.
He is first mentioned in 1583, when he, along
with another painter, executed decorations for
the entry of the Duke de Joyeuse into Lisieux.
As a painter he seems to have been very
versatile, and his talents sufficed for many other
tasks. He was a sculptor and maker of musical
instruments. He made a terrestrial globe which
Henry IV deposited in the large gallery of the
Louvre together with other of his works. In
the second edition of Les elements de I'artillerie,
Paris, 1608, from which these details have been
taken, Rivault de Flurance speaks of an air-gun
with a copper barrel. In 1605 Bourgoys is
definitely called a 'harquebuzier' (gunsmith).
He then receives a travelling allowance to
enable him to hand over a gun, a hunting bugle
and a cross-bow, 'le tout de sa facon' to the
king in Paris. Marin Le Bourgeoys was more-
over an art-dealer, according to de Peiresc's
correspondence 14 , Louis XIII 'visita le cabinet
d'un nomme Bourgeois'.
Now that this information is available and
is, furthermore, supported by Marin Le Bour-
geoys' signed guns, one of which has a flintlock
of the earliest type, both the construction and
the manufacture can reasonably be ascribed to
him, the more so inasmuch as this latter assump-
tion is supported by entries in the inventory
('Fait par Bourgeois'). This may indeed be the
case, but there are other facts which sound a
note of caution. Le Bourgeoys' signature can
be read in both cases on the mounts and not
on the locks. In the round medallion on the
lock-plate of the unsigned gun in Paris there
are the remains of a very damaged mark with
two initials. The first, '1', is quite distinct, the
second can be read as 'c'. This '1 c' must then
have made the lock and Le Bourgeoys executed
the decoration.
The inventory mentions six weapons as
having been made in Lisieux. Two of these are
attributed to Le Bourgeoys. One is the gun in
the Hermitage Museum; the other No. 134 of
the Inventory 'fait a Lisieux' 15 is identical with
the already mentioned No. 252 in Grancsay's
catalogue of the Metropolitan Loan Exhibition
of 193 1 16 . It belongs to Mr William G. Renwick
(PI. 9). The construction is the same as that of
the early flintiock already described. As to
form and decoration it shows a distinct link
with the Hermitage Museum gun. Marin Le
Bourgeoys certainly had something to do with
this gun. Even if he did not personally have a
hand in its manufacture it is nevertheless
probable that it originated in close proximity
to him and not only derives from the town of
Lisieux but from his immediate circle.
A mark with a cross-bow and the letters '1 b'
is stamped on the chamber close to the breech-
block 17 . Marin Le Bourgeoys had a brother
Jean (d. 161 5) 18 . This Jean Bourgeoys or Le
Bourgeoys — the members of the family wrote
their name with, as well as without the article —
was a gunsmith and watchmaker. This is
evident from the 'Compte des deniers com-
muns' in Lisieux for 1603. According to it 'Jean
Le Bourgeoys, armurier', was entrusted 19 with
the care of the town clock. He is also called
'maistre armurier et horloger' 20 in his daugh-
ter's marriage contract of 1627. It is rather
unlikely that there was another gunsmith with
the initials '1 b' in the tiny town of Lisieux
during the first two decades of the seventeenth
century. We can, therefore, undoubtedly agree
with Stockel when he states that this mark is
that of Jean Bourgeoys.
30
Additional reasons for attributing the mark
to this period can be found in a group of fire-
arms of consistent form and decoration. Chief
of these is a double barrelled pistol with two
wheel-locks (PI. 13:1,2)^1 the Pauilhac collec-
tion in Paris. It bears No. 23 8 21 of the French
Cabinet d'Armes and is so closely related to
Mr Renwick's gun that as regards material,
technique and decoration the weapons might
have belonged to the same set. Decoration
in the typical technique of Marin Le Bour-
geoys is to be found on the barrels and
mounts on the upper side of the small of the
butt. Other pieces in this group are No. 211 in
the French Cabinet d'Armes, a pair of wheel-
lock pistols, one of which is No. 9178 in the
Zeughaus, Berlin*, the other No. 842" in the
Wallace Collection. In addition a wheel-lock
gun of Louis XIII in the Wallace Collection
(No. 1 1 33, the French Cabinet d'Armes No.
61) 23 bears the same mark in the same place j".
It also closely resembles Mr Renwick's gun,
especially in the decoration of the barrel and in
a mother-of-pearl medallion with an antique
warrior figure cut in relief and inset in the small
of the butt. That in the Renwick Collection has
a medallion with a woman's figure in the same
place. The pistols enable us to date the group.
They are more archaic than No. 257 of the
French Cabinet d'Armes, a wheel-lock pistol
made by Marin Masue at Vitre in 1612 24 , or a
pair of wheel-lock pistols at Rosenborg in
Copenhagen, Inv. Nos. 7-137. These can be
dated by comparison with No. 40 of the French
Cabinet d'Armes, a wheel-lock gun, now in the
Musee de l'Armee, Paris, No. M 95". This
bears the date 161 3 on the barrel. No other
directly comparable dated weapons of French
origin are known, but there is in the Livrust-
kammare a pair of pistols, Inv. Nos. 1576,
1577 26 , dated 1603. Their barrels and cocks
agree so closely with those of the pair of
pistols in Berlin and the Wallace Collection
that they must have been made about the same
time. This in its turn involves the entire group
stamped with the '1 b' mark and brings it into
the very period when Jean Bourgeoys lived
and worked in Lisieux. The inventory of the
French Cabinet d'Armes actually states that
The origin of the flintlock
Mr Renwick's gun was made in that town.
If we thus have every reason to accept the
view expressed by Stockel, but not yet proved,
namely that the 'ib' mark is that of Jean
Bourgeoys, this gives a definite terminus ante
quern for the gun in the Renwick Collection,
viz. 161 5, the year of the master's death, and
consequentiy also for the origin of the flintlock.
For the terminus a quo the gun itself provides
the necessary information by reason of the V
(cf. PI. 9:3) surmounted by the royal French
crown on the left-hand side of the stock
opposite the lock. This indicates that the gun
was made for Louis XIII, and since he became
king in 16 10 the gun must have been manu-
factured some time during the period 1 610-15.
To this, the earliest group of French flindock
weapons, belongs another gun in the Musee de
l'Armee, Paris (unnumbered, Royal Inventory
No. 139, PI. 11 :4) 27 . This is of slightly later date
than the first group. It differs from them in
that the body and neck of the cock are broader.
The pan is, as on the Netherlands snaphances,
attached by a screw the head of which is behind
the pan on the outside of the lock-plate (the
pans of the Lisieux weapons are riveted). The
steel is squat and abrupdy truncated at the top
like the pistol mentioned above with a snap-
hance lock in the Historisches Museum,
Dresden (PI. 6:2-5). This gun shows other
features that differ from those of the authentic
Lisieux weapons. Direcdy below the pan at the
lower edge of the lock-plate, a mark with the
initials 'p l' is stamped in an angular, crowned
shield 25 . This gun provides further useful
evidence in dating the origin of the flindock by
its similarities, among them the form of the
butt, to a wheel-lock gun by D. Jumeau, dated
1616 (No. M 102) in the same museum.
Jumeau, according to Michel de Marolles, lived
in 'les galeries du Louvre' 29 .
Besides these flintlocks with buffers on the
lock-plates three more have been discovered,
one on a gun in the Tower of London Arm-
ouries (Inv. No. XII: 1131. PI. 14:5, 15 :i) and
on two guns formerly in the Museum of
Artillery in the Rotunda, Woolwich (Inv. No.
VI: 75 and IV: 20. PI. 15: 2, 4, 15 13, 5). Of the
two latter the first has since been transferred to
31
Flintlock
the Victoria and Albert Museum (No. M 6-
1949), the latter to the Tower of London (No.
XII: 1442). It is included in No. 138 30 of the
French Cabinet d'Armes.
Finally mention may be made of a small-bore
gun in the Royal Armoury, Windsor Castle
(Inv. No. 316. PI. 14: 1-3). It was presented by
Lord Fife in 1823, and it would not be sur-
prising if it had come to England with the
troops returning home from the Napoleonic
wars. The gun is published by Laking, who
states that it has a snaphance lock ('The lock
is upon the snaphance principle'), that it is
dated 1630 and he records an assumption that
Marshal Turenne was its owner 31 . The lock-
plate bears an inscription which Laking makes
out to be 'Faict A Turene'. He moreover
deciphers a '1630', which is not to be found. Of
this (cf. 14:2) 'Faict A Turene' is quite clear so
that the place of manufacture can be recognized
as Turenne near Brive in the Department of
Correze. This is not far from Tulle which was
later to become famous for the manufacture of
arms. The rest of the inscription permits
different interpretations. It is out of the ques-
tion, however, to make '1630' of it. What
were thought to be the final figures have on
closer examination proved to be part of the
decoration. What precedes this are the initials
'm. d.', which would mean 1500 if the inscrip-
tion signified a date. Since the gun dates from
the beginning of the seventeenth century this
interpretation is also excluded. It then remains
to interpret 'm. d.' as the initials of a signature.
Marshal Henri de la Tour-d'Auvergne, vicomte
de Turenne, is also ruled out, for the gun bears
an owner's coat of arms (PI. 14:3) opposite the
lock, those of Phelipeau la Vrilliere, although
reversed and under a ducal coronet. So far as is
known, no member of the family could claim it.
Two engravings by J. Henequin of Metz are
relevant to this piece. One belongs to a series
of six plates preserved in Paris (Bibliotheque
Nationale, Cabinet des estampes. Le 24. PI.
103 :i). The other belongs to the Kunstgewerbe
Museum in Hamburg (0. 1905. 226. PI. 103 :3) 32 .
Both illustrate cocks and buffers, the latter a
cock which accords in form and construction
with those on the Hermitage gun and on Mr
Renwick's gun. Henequin's period of activity is
given by the year 1621 on a wheel-lock gun
signed by him in the Bayerisches National
Museum, Munich (Inv. No. 1733. PI. 104) 33 .
The fact that he worked for the French Court
is evident from Louis XIII's monogram and
coat of arms. These are engraved on the butt-
plate of the gun (cf. PL 104:3).
Before proceeding further it might be well to
eliminate from the discussion on the origin of
the flintlock a rubbing of a lock-plate which
might be taken to be one of the earliest 34 . It is
preserved in the volume Le 24 in Bibliotheque
Nationale, Paris, Cabinet des estampes, and is
reproduced here reversed (PI. 14:4). The lock
is signed 'P. Cordier', in all probability the same
Philippe Cordier Daubigny who signed a
number of pattern plates for gunsmiths (PI.
108) 35 . It is probably this rubbing which
Boeheim refers to in his statement regarding
'der Abdruck einer iiberaus schon gravierten
Schlossplatte, bezeichnet "Jean Cordier fecit" '
which was in Tlnstitut' in Paris. No collection
of rubbings is, however, kept there, but there is
certainly one in the Bibliotheque Nationale.
It can be proved by the marks of screw-holes
and pins that this lock had a buffer in front of
the cock on the outside of the lock. The hole
for the sear-screw can be seen behind the hole
for the axle of the cock and immediately above
it there is yet another which can be explained
as a screw-hole for a dog-catch. The short
distance between the holes for the axle of the
cock and sear-screw is evidence that the lock
was not one of the earliest types. In the latter
this distance, which is governed by the length
of the nose of the sear, is greater.
The earliest flindocks are in one way or
another connected with the royal house of
France. It is evident from what has already been
said that the firearms of this earliest type which
have been preserved with the buffer all
belonged to the Cabinet d'Armes, with the
exception of the Tower of London No. XII:
1442^: and the Windsor gun. Henequin worked
for Louis XIII.
The evidence at our disposal in dealing with
the earliest flindock weapons is extremely
limited. To assemble these pieces in a typo-
32
logical series may seem from the nature of the
case to be doomed to failure. The typological
way of looking at things is, on the whole,
uncertain. The types may correspond or just
overlap as regards time but can nevertheless —
correctly analysed and placed side by side-
indicate the rate of development and the direc-
tion of progress. The information thus obtained
indicates probable solutions. In the present
investigation, where the absence of document-
ary sources is very noticeable and may be
expected to persist, the typological method is
the only feasible one.
The butt-forms offer favourable possibilities
for compiling a typological series as a guide to
dating.
The two principal types of gun-butts are the
German and the musket-butt. The straight
German butts were laid against the cheek, the
musket-butts, at least in most cases, against the
shoulder or chest 36 . Sir Roger Williams, the
English author, expresses this latter view in his
Discourse of Warn, printed in the time of Queen
Elizabeth. He definitely calls the curved
musket-butts French 37 . Viewed from behind
both types are formed from a rectangular central
part with a triangular comb. The musket-butt
has, in addition, a triangular lower edge. On
the straight German butt the cheek spreads
downwards and outwards from the inner side
of the central part. The musket-butt is charac-
terized by the downward trend of the central
part and the bold upward trend of the comb.
The high comb probably originated when it
became customary to press the butt against the
shoulder. The two early French wheel-lock
guns mentioned previously (p. 3), Nos. M 66
and M 82 in the Musee de l'Armee, Paris,
show the musket-butt at an early stage. It
develops along two lines. On the one hand the
central part and underside descend in increas-
ingly bolder curves and the comb sweeps in a
corresponding manner upwards. The most
exaggerated forms are to be found in the
Netherlands during the decades around 1600.
' A group of wheel-lock guns dating from 1 5 96
and a matchlock musket, all in the Livrust-
kammare and all with the Amsterdam mark 38 ,
may be cited as examples. This type of butt with
The origin of the flintlock
increasingly rounded forms still survives on
muskets throughout the whole of the earlier
half of the seventeenth century. Their last off-
shoots are to be found on the Moroccan guns
with Netherlands snaphances. In the second
instance — and this applies precisely to France
it is true that the comb of the butt becomes
definitely larger and at the same time acquires a
slightly upward swing about 1600. The central
part on the other hand becomes straighter and
tends to lose its slight sweep. The comb of the
butt is occasionally very thin at the top and the
upper edge reinforced, terminated in a torus
at the thumb-rest. About 161 5 the forms were
very austere. The line defining the comb at the
top was quite straight and the underside turned
almost imperceptibly downwards. No. M 95
of the Musee de l'Armee in Paris, the wheel-
lock mentioned above, which is dated 161 3 and
signed 'Aumon fait tel' and 'f. p.' 39 , as well as
the wheel-lock gun by Jumeau, dated 161 6,
afford examples of this development. A typical
specimen is the wheel-lock gun with the mark
of Masue, the Vitre master, in the Lowenburg
on Wilhelmshohe at Cassel (Inv. No. W 1253).
It can be dated by comparison with the wheel-
lock in the Tower of London Armouries just
mentioned (Inv. No. XII: 1075). According to
the inventory of the French Cabinet d'Armes
(No. 257) it bore the inscription 'a Vitre par
Marin Mazue 161 2'; this is now partly effaced,
but it still bears the same mark as the gun in
the Lowenburg.
In the 1 620s the thumb-rest disappears and
the downward sweep of the underside becomes
bolder. Examples are the wheel-lock gun
signed and dated by 'Jean Henequin a Metz 1 62 1 '
in the Bayerisches National Museum (PI. 104)
and a wheel-lock gun in the Musee de l'Armee,
Paris (Inv. No. M 131), signed and dated 'Jean
Simonin a Luneville 1627' 40 . A gun of the same
period signed 'J. Habert a Nancy' (French
Cabinet d'Armes No. 43) 41 is in the Pauilhac
collection, Paris. The form and the carved band
passing obliquely across the stock in front of
the lock enable us to date it approximately 42 .
Not only the wheel-lock signed by Jumeau
but also Aumon's gun of 161 3 and Masue's
gun of about 161 2 enable us to date No. 139
33
Flintlock
(PI. 1 1 :4) of the French Cabinet cTArmes to
about 1615. All four have butts of the same
form. The butt of No. M 529 (PI. 11 :z) of the
Musee de l'Armee, decorated by Marin Le
Bourgeoys, is very closely related but has a
slightly more curved profile which would seem
to indicate an earlier date. With the help of the
Renwick gun (PI. 9) it should be possible to
penetrate still further back. The Lisieux
weapons generally have, as a matter of fact,
butts of a very individual form, especially that
in the Hermitage Museum with its deer's foot,
a trophy of its sporting owner, as a striking
feature.
With this comparatively reliable starting
point for dating according to form, it is
possible by analysing No. 139 of the inventory
in Paris (PI. 1 1 14) and comparing it with other
weapons to get an idea as to what is early and
what is late. A close similarity to snaphance
weapons should then lead to earlier dating, and
similarity to reliably dated later weapons to
later dating.
No. 139 of the Paris inventory has a rather
narrow, slightly V shaped cock attached from
the outside by a screw into the square of the
tumbler. The head of this screw is rounded and
grooved. The spur of the cock is straight and
has a scroll at the top. The upper jaw slides on
the spur of the cock which has a notch at the
back, and the head of the jaw-screw is almost
ball shaped. There is an ornament in the form
of a scroll in the curve at the rear of the cock.
This scroll swings out into a point immediately
above the cock-retaining screw. Just opposite
there is a projection on the belly of the cock
with a leaf ornament. This projection rests
against the buffer when the cock is lowered.
The buffer touches the cock direcdy opposite
the cock-retaining screw, and the part of it
behind the screw is very short. This projec-
tion on the cock, the short buffer and its
position on the lock-plate are typical features
of the earliest flintlocks. It might be supposed
that this also applies to the Netherlands snap-
hance made in French territory from which the
flintlocks were directly developed. No such
actual weapon has hitherto been found, how-
ever. . It is true that those known to be of
English or Netherlands provenance have, if
they are late, short buffers pointing towards
the base of the cock, but there is no projection
in the latter. The buffers of the earlier ones are
long and engage to the belly or simply the neck
of the cock.
The gun most closely related to No. 139 of
the inventory is No. M 529 in the Musee de
l'Armee, Paris (PI. 11:1, 2). The V form of its
cock is not quite so accentuated. The neck is
much more slender, the projection on the belly
of the cock is undecorated. Instead the leaf
shaped ornament in the curve of the back of
the cock ending in a volute below is all the
more emphatic. There is also a small scroll on
the neck in the angle of the lower jaw. The
cock-retaining screw has a convex, round head
which covers most of the body and terminates
in a square end which can be turned with a key.
The snaphance cocks are thin at the begin-
ning of the seventeenth century and have a
decidedly straight neck which continues the
profile of the spur and forms below it a dis-
tinctly bulging belly. The straight and thin
form is to be found on the Renwick gun and
the Hermitage Museum gun (PI. 8, 9), but the
curve of the belly is considerably modified.
The closest affinity to the snaphance cock is to
be found on Henequin's pattern sheets (PI.
103:1, 3). The sheet in Hamburg shows the
square head of the tumbler and all the
other projections and scrolls. Henequin has
only filled in the recess at the back of the snap-
hance cock and left the foot of the cock, which
on the snaphance engaged half cock, in the
rudimentary form of a scroll. A ribbon passing
across the body of the cock shows that this is
intended to be flat, like the corresponding part
of De la Gardie's gun in the Musee de FArmee
(cf.Pl. 7 :4).
It is possible that Henequin's engraving of a
flindock cock in the Cabinet des Estampes,
Paris, should be regarded as representing a still
earlier stage. The reason is that Henequin has
designed the foot of the snaphance cock as a
scrolled, scaly tail and the cock is attached
from the inside like the Netherlands snap-
hances. It consequently has no tumbler-square.
In dealing with the steel a different line can
34
perhaps be taken. Those of the Netherlands
snaphances are slender and tall. They are
thickest at the middle where the arm, the length
of which depends on the space required by the
pan-cover, is attached and they terminate above
in a scroll. When the change-over to flintlock
takes place, the arm of the steel is moved down
to the edge of the pan-cover but retains a great
part of its length. The steel is still thickest at
the middle. The Hermitage Museum gun and
the Renwick gun have a separate striking
surface attached by a screw through the thickest
part of the plate. This is the surest proof of the
link with the 'Mediterranean locks' and at the
same time a reason for regarding these weapons
as the oldest. All the arms considered here to
be of early date have long steel arms. No.
M 529 of the Paris museum and that of the
Victoria and Albert Museum No. M 6-1949
are slightly shorter than the others. They also
have, with one exception, slender steels which
do not extend the whole width of the pan-cover.
The low, broad steel of No. 139 of the Cabinet
(TArmes in Paris does, however, extend right
across it and this, as has already been pointed
out, is also reminiscent of the 'Mediterranean
locks'.
An interesting point about the pans is that
in the case of the Hermitage Museum gun, the
Renwick gun and the Victoria and Albert
Museum No. M 6-1949, they are set in a
rectangular recess in the lock-plate. In longi-
tudinal section the pans of these guns are
rectangular, bevelled in front and at the back.
On No. M 5 29 of the Paris museum and No.
139 of the French Cabinet d'Armes in the same
museum this bevelling is gradual so that the
section of the pans is triangular with the lower
apex cut off. The pan of the Netherlands snap-
hance is attached from outside by a screw
passing behind it. This is also the case on a
few of the oldest flintlocks. The pans of the
others are riveted to the lock-plate. The method
of attaching the pans does not seem to help in
dating according to type. The fence of the
Netherlands snaphance became so traditional
a feature of the lock-plate to the gunsmiths
that it has been rendered in embryo on the
lock-plate of the Hermitage Museum gun. On the
The origin of the flintlock
gun No. M 5 29 in the Musee de l'Armee, Paris,
Marin Le Bourgeoys has depicted this relic of a
guard as an empty circle in the ornamentation.
In the middle of it the unknown master '1 c'
has stamped his mark.
The Netherlands snaphances are, as a rule,
attached with three screws, the flintlocks with
two. A comparison between the De la Gardie
gun on the one hand and the Hermitage
Museum gun and the Renwick gun on the
other shows that the step from the Netherlands
snaphance lock to the flindock is very short. At
the beginning of the seventeenth century the
plate of the Netherlands snaphance generally
terminates at the back with a drop like pro-
longation. Both the flintlock guns have this
finial in somewhat modified form at each end
of the plate. The upper edge of the Netherlands
snaphance lock rises at first rather gradually
from the rear, but acquires a pronounced ledge
or outward bulge at the foot of the cock and
then rises steeply towards the pan. The plates
of the flintlocks are more uniform. They are,
on the whole, narrower since room is no
longer needed for the various parts of the
sliding pan-cover. They have a tendency,
however, to acquire a more or less marked
downward bulge; it is not clear whether this is
due to a desire to increase the strength of the
lock-plate or to the influence of the wheel-lock
construction. The upper edge of the lock-plate
of the Hermitage gun rises rather sharply
towards the pan. Just in front of the cock there
is a swelling which is explained by comparison
with the snaphance. As regards the outside
surface of the locks all that needs to be added
is that the forms are flat and that both the
screws by which they are attached and those
with which their parts are fixed project through
the plate, as in the case of the snaphances. The
tumbler and sear also provide indications of
date. The idea of tumblers with notches
could, as mentioned above, have been derived
from the cross-bow. The simplest and most
circular tumblers are found on the Renwick
gun and the Hermitage gun with No. 139 of
the French Cabinet d'Armes in the Musee de
l'Armee and the Tower of London Armouries
(XII : 1 1 3 1) next in close resemblance. Common
35
Flintlock
to all is the fact that they lack any indication of
a counter-cocking bent on the tumbler §. On
the Windsor gun (cf. PL 14:1-3) the spur of the
tumbler has become much more robust and
has a notch below it. This is followed by a
counter-cocking bent on the tumbler in
the next stage of development. A long sear with
a long nose is old fashioned. It is longest on
the Hermitage gun and on the Renwick gun
(cf. PL 10:1, 2). All the other locks mentioned
here have a shorter sear-nose.
Marin Le Bourgeoys seems to have had his
own type of trigger-guard (cf. PL 8, 9 and
11:3). But both No. M 529 of the Paris
museum, which was decorated by him, and
No. 139 of the French Cabinet d'Armes in the
Musee de l'Armee (PL 11 :i, 4) have trigger-
guards that revert to a closely related type of
cross-bow trigger. This is known to have
existed in southern Germany in the middle of
the sixteenth century as is shown by the Livrust-
kammare wheel-lock gun (Inv. No. 121 5)
dating from the 1540s 43 , among others. It is
also found on the gun No. M 66 44 with a
French wheel-lock in the Musee de l'Armee,
Paris.
The back part of the trigger-guard on the
English petronel of 1584 in the National
Museum, Copenhagen (Section II 10428. PL
2:1) is of rounder and broader section. Twelve
years later the Netherland-ish wheel-lock guns
of 1596 in the Livrustkammare, mentioned
above as examples of the butt formation of
about 1600, have had this back part pressed in.
It is shortened and thinner. The musket in
Windsor Casde with the dog-lock added later
(Inv. No. 364. PL 4:2), which is dated 1619,
shows the next stage in development. Jacob De
la Gardie's target gun with snaphance lock in
the Musee de l'Armee (PL 7:2) also belongs to
this stage.
The form of the trigger-guard on No. 139
in the French Cabinet d'Armes (PL 1 1 -.4) also
suggests a date about 161 5, the same date at
which we have already arrived from the form
of the butt.
The stock of the Hermitage Museum gun
has a peculiarity which is also to be found
on Netherland-ish snaphances and on wheel-
36
lock guns. The lock is fitted in a flat surface
terminating in a pronounced ledge slightly in
front of the lock (cf. PL 8). This feature
accounts for this weapon being regarded as
one of the very earliest flintlock arms. If to
this point are added our observations on the
form of the cock, the steel, the long arm of the
steel, the screwed-on striking surface, the fence
moved down to the lock-plate and the form of
the plate itself, one is strongly inclined to
regard the Hermitage Museum gun as the
oldest of the flindock arms now known and,
perhaps, the very first. Next comes the Renwick
gun. After that No. M 529 of the Paris museum
and No. 139 of the French Cabinet d'Armes in
the same museum. Of these, the first three are
of Lisieux manufacture.
The early flindock gun in Windsor Casde
(PL 14:1-3) does not fit into a series with the
other oldest flintlocks. But if, for example, we
take the De la Gardie gun as a starting point,
we shall find affinity in the pronounced upward
contour of the lock-plate behind the pan, then
again in the flat, thin jaws of the cock and in
the proportions of the head of the cock-screw,
similarities in the construction of the cock and
form of the pan to the other oldest flindocks.
As to the stock, the flat part in front of the lock
and also the pattern of studded silver lines
recall the Bourgeoys guns. The barrel with its
rounded finish at the rear is reminiscent of arms
dating from the beginning of the seventeenth
century, and the thick triangular finial of the
butt round the tang of the barrel is recorded
on French territory in the year 161 3.
The form of the tumbler with its broad spur,
straight finish and its early counter-cocking
also indicates a later date than the Hermitage
Museum gun and the Renwick gun.
The place of manufacture of this gun,
Turenne, is remarkably isolated from northern
France in which all the oldest flintlocks can
apparently be located. A natural explanation of
this fact might, however, be found in the
location of Sedan, the original principal seat of
the Masters of Turenne, of the family de la
Tour-d'Auvergne. This flintlock gun of the
earliest construction is so isolated that it is
difficult to give it an acceptable date. It can
Plate 25.
France. Paris.
c. 1650.
1 and 4. Wender gun by Thobie of Paris; Lowenburg
Casde W. 1339. 2 and 3. Wender pistol, one of a pair,
by Choderlot of Paris; Copenhagen, Tojhusmuseet B 673.
Plate 26.
France, Lyons and Switz-
erland, Geneva.
Mid seventeenth century
1. Wender pistol, one of a pair, by Claude Roux of Lyons.
2. Wender pistol, one of a pair, by Cunet of Lyons ; Skok-
loster, Wrangel Armoury 64 and 63. 3. Double barrelled
gun by Abraham Meunier of Geneva; Copenhagen,
Tojhusmuseet B 680.
Plate 27.
France, Sedan.
1 and 2. Pistol by 'Ezechias Colas a Sedan' Type of 1630s;
formerly Berlin, Zeughaus A D 13367. 3. Lock of pistol,
one of a pair, by same master; Berne, Historisches Museum
3902. 4. Lock of pistol, one of a pair, by Gabriel Gourinal
of Sedan, c. 1650; Stockholm, Livrustkammaren 1694.
Plate 28.
.'l
France, Sedan and Metz.
1 640s.
1. Pistol, one of a pair, by Jean Dubois of Sedan. 2. Pistol,
one of a pair, by Jean Prevot of Metz; Skokloster, Wrangel
Armoury 44 and 33.3. Pistol with cast pommel by Montaigu
of Metz. c. 1650; Pauilhac Collection, Paris.
Plate 29.
3 ^^
Belgium, Liege, and
Netherlands, Maastricht.
Mid seventeenth century.
1 and 4. Wender gun by David of Liege. Livrustkammaren
5305. 2. Wender gun by Jan Kitzen of Maastricht; Lowen-
burg Castle W. 1338. 3 and 5. Wender Pistol, one of a pair,
by La Pierre of Maastricht; Skokloster, Wrangel Armoury
7i-
Plate 30.
Netherlands, Zutphen
and Utrecht.
Mid seventeenth century
1. Wender pistol, one of a pair, by Van den Sande of
Zutphen. 2. Wender gun by Jan Flock of Utrecht. 3. Gun
by Cornells Coster of Utrecht 1652; Copenhagen, Tojhus-
museet B 619, B 625. 4. Double barrelled pistol, one of a
pair, by same master; Skokloster, Wrangel Armoury 53.
5. Admiral Martin Tromp's (d. 1653) pistol, one of a pair,
by Jan Knoop of Utrecht; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum 6098.
Plate
Western Europe and
Germany ( ?)
Mid seventeenth century.
i and 2. Garniture of gun and pistol one of a pair, with
two locks for one barrel. 3. Gun, Germany (?); Skokloster,
Wrangel Armoury 233, 62 and 244. 4. Queen Kristina's
pistol, one of a pair; Stockholm, Livrustkammaren 1610.
Plate 32.
Germany, Augsburg and
Switzerland, Zurich.
1. Gun by Martin Kammerer of Augsburg; formerly
Berlin, Zeughaus A D 8694. 2 and 3. Garniture of flintlock
carbine and pistol, one of a pair, by Felix Werder of Zurich
1652; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Waffensammlung
A 1454. Zurich, Schweizerisches Landesmuseum K.Z. 5316.
Plate 33.
Germany.
1650-75 (?)
1. Blunderbuss by Valentien Tribel; Oslo, Artillerimuseum
A 41. 2. Breech loading gun by Henrich Morietz of Cassel.
3. Breech loading gun, signed 'Jean Hennere Albrechtt
1667 zu Braunfels gemacht', Copenhagen, Tojhusmuseet B
543 and B 572. 4. Charles XI's pistol, one of a pair; Augs-
burg. Stockholm, Livrustkammaren 1734.
Plate 34.
Germany, Augsburg and
Sweden (?)
1650-75.
1 and 2. The Elector John George IFs pistol, one of a pair.
Signed 'Augsburg'; Dresden, Gewehrgalerie 354 b. 3-5.
Flintlock gun, Sweden, (?)<r. 1660; Stockholm Livrustkam-
maren (Sack Armoury) 42/125.
Plate 3 5 .
Italy, Brescia.
Mid seventeenth century.
i. Pistol, one of a pair, signed 'Giovanni Francese in
Brescia', 2. Pistol, one of a pair, the barrels signed 'Lazzarino
Cominazzo'; Moscow, Oruzejnaja palata 8094, 8095. 3.
Flintlock gun; Paris, Musee de l'Armee M. 544. 4. Wender
pistol, one of a pair; Stockholm, Livrustkammaren 20/9.
Plate 36.
Western Europe.
1630-40S.
T| J
1. Gun; Copenhagen, Tojhusmuseet B 660. 2 and 5. Gun
3. Pistol, one of a pair; Skokloster, Wrangel Armoury 250,
30. 4 and 6. Gun; Kranichstein at Darmstadt, Jagdmuseum
223.
probably be best described at present as a
retarded form.
This also applies to the Tower of London
Armouries gun No. XII: 113 1 (earlier Rotunda
No. MA 928. PI. 14:5, 15:1), one of the French
Cabinet a" Arms' s guns No. 138. Like the
Netherland-ish snaphances its lock is attached
with three screws to the stock instead of the
usual two of the flindock. The steel-spring is
placed below the pan. The steel is narrower
than the pan-cover, thickest at the middle and
surmounted by a scroll; the arm is relatively
short. The pan has had an out-turned terminal
(a fence) (now lost). The head of the cock-screw
is of the high, square type with which we are
already acquainted from the majority of the
earliest flintlocks. In the same way the cock
has a definite Y form, with rounded jaws and
chubby spur with a turned button on the top.
The projection on the shoulder is in the form
of a scroll. On the corresponding place on the
upper V curve, on the neck of the cock, there
is a pendant without any function. This form
of cock can be explained if we imagine the
cocking foot of the snaphance cock to be cut
off, the lower curve at the rear retained and the
neck slightly flattened out. Tumbler and sear
are most reminiscent of the Hermitage Museum
gun. The flat part of the stock in front of the
lock on the Hermitage gun is also found here.
The form of the butt is confusing until we
recognize the style of the 1610-20 period in its
angularity, the deep thumb-grip, the straight
contour of the butt and the long downward
curve of the underside. The central section,
however, has been widened considerably to
make room for the butt-trap and its sliding
cover. Having seen this butt and convinced
myself of its affinity with the lock, I believe that
the form of Victoria and Albert Museum M 6-
1949 (PI. 15 :z) is correct even if it is a copy||.
This Victoria and Albert Museum M 6-1949
is in many respects more closely allied to the
definitely earlier flintlock, but if the Tower of
London Armouries XII: 1131 is a retarded
form so must it be also. This would mean that
the Tower of London XII: 1442 (PI. 15 13, 5)
with its still later forms should be dated later.
Jn order to decide if the cocks on the
The origin of the flintlock
Henequin engravings are flintlock cocks or
not, it is necessary to have some knowledge of
the tumblers and sears of the locks to which
they are supposed to belong. There is no
indication of a nose of the sear passing through
the plate. As long as no snaphance lock has
been found with the characteristic spur to
engage with the buffer in the body of the cock
there is every reason to consider them as flint-
lock cocks. They are consequently of the
greatest interest.
Henequin worked for the French king, so
far as is known for Louis XIII only. Marin Le
Bourgeoys worked also for Henry IV. The
Renwick gun bears Louis XIII's monogram
and is earlier than 161 5. The Hermitage
Museum gun, which is slighdy more old
fashioned, has no monogram but the coats of
arms of France and Navarre. Can it possibly be
the 'arquebuse' which Marin Le Bourgeoys
presented to Henry IV in 1605 ? This is quite
within the range of possibility, and this master
consequendy takes a leading place when we
seek the maker of the flintlock.
The material presented in this chapter does
not, it is true, amount to much and it is
difficult to get a firm grip of it. It permits us,
however, to draw definite conclusions con-
cerning the manner in which the flindock
originated, the borrowing of the steel of the
'Mediterranean lock' and the change in the
cocking device of the Netherlands snaphance
construction to a half-cock with tumbler and
vertically moving sear. The date of the con-
struction has also been advanced very definitely
towards the beginning of the seventeenth
century. As regards place this must lie in the
northern part of France. There is a good deal
to suggest Lisieux as the place where the
flintlock was invented and Marin Le Bourgeoys
as its inventor.
Editor's Notes
* Numerous references are made in the text
to the Zeughaus Museum, Berlin. Since
World War Two this has been re-named
the Museum fur Deutsche Geschichte and,
though it retains a very important collection
of arms and armour, it is no longer speci-
37
Flintlock
fically an arms museum. A large part of its
collections are kept in store. The war time
and post war losses were very heavy and
none of the pieces illustrated in this work —
on Plates 17, 27, 32 and 85 — are now in the
museum. The firearms referred to in the
text on the following pages but not illus-
trated are also missing — A D9178 (p. 31),
A D8664 (p. 3 1), A D8693 (p. 23), A D9048
(p. 46) and A D9477 (p. 48). The remainder,
referred to on p. 74 and p. 157, 23.10 (now
numbered W. 1 144) and 28.13 a.b. (now num-
bered W.i 145 a.b.) are still in the museum.
As the present whereabouts of the missing
pistols are unknown, it has seemed simpler
to leave the Zeughaus reference in the text
or on the captions. Only where the weapons
are still in the museum have the new name
and numbers been given.
\ The Wallace Collection Catalogue Vol. II,
1962, suggests that the mark is 'p b' and not
'1 b' with a cross-bow.
% This gun is one of the considerable number
removed by order of the British Com-
mandant from the Paris Arsenal after the
battle of Waterloo. Many of these eventu-
ally found their way to the Rotunda
Museum at Woolwich. There is no reason
to doubt that this gun belonged originally
to the Cabinet d'Armes of Louis XIII.
§ The term 'counter-cocking bent' is un-
familiar in English terminology. Dr Lenk
means by it the notch cut in the tumbler
at the base of the hooked spur that forces
back the main-spring when the lock is
cocked. When the cock falls the tip
of the sear engages in this bent, preventing
the tumbler from turning further and
allowing the main-spring to slip free of the
spur. On later locks this function is per-
formed by the shoulder or ledge cut on the
inside of the cock, which engages with the
upper edge of the lock-plate.
The fore-stock is restored, but the remainder
is original.
Notes to Chapter Three
1. Livrustkammaren. Vagledning 1894. P- 37-
38
2. Estruch y Cumella, Museo-armerla. PI. 143.
No. 1014.
3. Livrustkammaren. Inventory 1683. P. 56.
Palace Archives.
4. Livrustkammaren. Vagledning 1921. P. 87.
No. 703.
5. Livrustkammaren. Vagledning 1921. P. 98.
No. 788.
6. [Guiffrey], 'Liste des peintres . . . et autres
artistes de la maison du roi'. Nouvelles
archives de f art jrancais I. P. 99.
7. Voumetol, Quatrains au Roy. ([Reprinted in]
Bibliotheque El^evirienne 79: VI. Pp. 131-65.)
8. Lenz, Imperatorskij Eremita^. P. 262.
9. Guiffrey, Inventaire general du mohilier de la
couronne. T. II. Pp. 61, 62.
10. Paris, Archives Nationales O 1 3334.
11. I take this opportunity to correct a mistake
in my article on the oldest flintlocks in
Konsthistorisk tidskrift 1934, in which I
state that the signed butt-plate belongs to
this gun.
12. 'Marin Bourgeoys, peintre de Roi.' Bulletin
de la Societe historique de Eisieux, ipij. 'Marin
Bourgeoys, peintre de Henri IV et de
Louis XI1L' Bulletin de la Societe de fhistoire
de Part franfais, 1926. 'Thomas Picquot et
les portraits de Marin Bourgeoys.' Are-
thuse. IV. 1927. Etude de topographie
lexovienne.
13. Berty, Histoire generale de Paris. Topo-
graphie historique du vieux Paris. P. 101.
14. Fillon, 'Marin Le Bourgeoys. Peintre du
Roi (15 91-1605)'. Nouvelles archives de I' art
franfais. [IV.] Pp. 141-45.
15. Peiresc, Lettres. Pp. 754, 755.
16. Heroard, Journal. T. II. P. 247.
17. Guiffrey, Inventaire general du mohilier de la
couronne. T. II. Pp. 59, 60. Un beau fusil de
4 pieds 4 pouces, fait a Lizieux, le canon
roud, couleur d'eau, ayant une arreste sur
le devant et a pams sur la derriere, dore de
rinceaux en trois endroits, la platine unie
ornee de quelques petittes pieces dorees
sur un beaue bois de poirier noircy,
enrichy de plusieurs petits ornemens
d'argent et de nacre de perle, la crosse
terminee en consolle par le dessous, sur
laquelle il y a une longue fueuille de cuivre
dore de rapport, et sur le poukier un
mascaron d'argent et une L couronee vis a
vis la lumiere.
1 8. [Grancsay], The Metropolitan Museum of
Art Loan. Exhibition. P. 66.
19. Stockel, Haandskydevaabens Bedommelse. I.
P. 49-
20. Huard, Etude de topographie lexovienne.
Tableau genealogique . . .
21. Lisieux, Archives municipales CC 149.
Communicated by M. Georges Huard.
22. Communicated by M. Georges Huard.
23. GuifTrey, Inventaire general du mobilier de la
couronne. T. II. P. 74. Un autre pistolet a
deux canons, de 25 pouces, les canons
rounds et separez dur le devant, unis et a
huit pams inegaux sur la derriere, dorez en
couleur d'eau; les rouets unis, montez sur
un bois de pokier orne de quelques fillets
de cuivre at de nacre de perle.
24. Laking, Catalogue of the European armour and
arms in the Wallace Collection at Hertford
House. P. 231.
25. Ibid. P. 299. Guiffrey, Inventaire general du
mobilier de la couronne. T. II. P. 50. Une
arquebuse de 3 pieds 4 pouces, le canon
rond, un petit pam tout au long dore en
couleur d'eau, le roiiet tout uny, montee
sur un bois rouge orne de quelques
fleurons d'argent, de cuivre et de nacre de
perle; il y a aux deux costez de la crosse
deux L couronnees.
26. Tower of London In v. No. XII: 1075.
Transferred from the Rotunda at Wool-
wich.
27. Le Musee de l'Armee. Armes et armures
anciennes. T. II. Pp. 123, 124. PL XL, XL
bis.
28. Ceder strom and Malmborg. Den aldre Liv-
rustkammaren 16J4. PI. 71.
29. Guiffrey, Inventaire general de mobilier de la
couronne. T. II. P. 60. Six gros mousquetons
a gros calibres, tous simples et communs a
fuzils, longs de 4 pieds ou environ.
30. |p
3 1 . Michel de Marolles, 'Le Livre des peintres
The origin of the flintlock
et graveurs'. Bibliotheque El^evirienne 46.
P. 88.
32. Guiffrey, Inventaire general du mobilier de la
couronne. T. II. P. 60. Dix huit fuzils
francois, tout simples et communs, depuis
5 jusqu'a 6 pieds de long ou environ.
Two more guns (IV: 112 and IV: 114)
with the same number, 138, in the inven-
tory of the French Cabinet d' Armes were
formerly preserved in the Rotunda at
Woolwich. One of these, however, has a
Netherlands snaphance with Italian forms.
The shoulder is located behind the tumbler
on the inside of the lock-plate. A hook
which engages in a notch at the foot of the
hammer-base serves as safety device. The
other gun has a steel, shoulder and only
full-cock formed in the tumbler by means
of a ledge on which the wheel-lock sear
rests. The lock is Italian in form and at the
foot of the inside there is an oval stamp with
a crown, double eagle and the letter 'm'.
33. Laking, The armoury of Windsor Castle.
European Section. P. 100. H.M. King George
VI granted permission to study and repro-
duce this weapon and others preserved in
Windsor Castle and dealt with in this thesis.
34. Communicated by Mr Ake Meyerson, m.a.,
who also provided a photograph of it.
35. Hoopes, 'Ein Beitrag zum franzosischen
Radschloss'. Zeitschrift fur historische Waffen-
und Konstumkunde. Vol. XIV. Pp. 50-53.
36. Cf. Lenk, 'De aldsta flintlasen, deras
dekoration and decoratorer'. Konsthistorisk
tidskrift, III. Pp. 130, 131.
37. Boeheim, Meister der Waffenschmiedekunst.
Pp. 55, 56.
38. Examples of early German butts to rest
against the shoulder are: a wheel-lock gun
from the middle of the sixteenth century in
the Rotunda at Woolwich (Inv. No. IX: 5)
and mercenaries' muskets in the Bayer-
isches Armeemuseum, reproduced by Aim,
Eldhandvapen I. P. 81. That this is an early
custom is proved by Jacob van Oostzanen's
painting of David and Abigael in The
State Museum for Art, Copenhagen (No.
77). It clearly shows a man with the gun-
butt pressed against his shoulder.
39
Flintlock
39. Meyrick, 'Observations upon the history of
hand firearms, and their appurtenances'.
Archaeologia. Vol. XXII. P. 71.
40. Cederstrom and Malmborg, Den aldre
Livrustkammaren 16 'jf. PI. 55, 56 and
52-
41. Le Musee de l'Armee. Armes .et armures
anciennes. T. II. Pp. 123, 124. PI. XL.
42. Ibid. Pp. 130, 131. PL XL.
43. Guiffrey, lnventaire general de mobilier de la
couronne. T. II. P. 47. Une carabine de 3
pieds 9 pouces, le canon couleur d'eau,
enrichy d'or et d'argent, ou sont deux
aigles dans le milieu, le roiiet uny sur un
bois de poirier garny de petits ornemens
d'argent, faite par Habert, a Nancy. Signa-
ture; cf. PL 134:5.
44. A wheel-lock gun from the Armoury of the
Counts of Erbach, signed and dated
'Claude Thomas a Epinal 1623' is an
exception to this evolutionary series. Both
butt and decoration are old fashioned.
45. Cederstrom and Malmborg, Den aldre Liv-
rustkammaren 16 j 4. PL 65. Lenk, Den
forgyllda bossan. {Memories of Gustavus
Vasa. Pp. 135-41.)
46. Le Musee de l'Armee. Armes et armures
anciennes. T. II. Pp. 11, 12. PL XXXVIII.
47. Le Musee de l'Armee. Armes et armures
anciennes. T. II. PL XL. No. M. 95.
40
CHAPTER FOUR
The French flintlock with flat surface.
1620-60
When we try to connect the oldest
flintlocks with the first flintlock that
is actually dated to the year 1636 we
encounter difficulties from lack of material,
particularly as regards the 1620s 1 . The picture
of the flintlock during that decade is still very
vague and unsatisfactory. The explanation
must surely be that the earliest flintlocks were
never widely distributed. It undoubtedly took
some time before the superiority of the con-
struction was recognized. The suspicion which
everything new encounters applied also to the
flintlock. Poumerol testified to this when he
speaks of 'ces fusils nouveaux'.
At present there is only one flintlock which
may with reasonable certainty be ascribed to
the period about 1620, or to the early 1620s.
This is the gun No. 435 in the Musee de
l'Armee (PL 10:3, 11:3, 12:3-6). It belonged
to the French Cabinet d'Armes of which it
bears the number 122 2 : it is signed at the foot
of the butt-plate 'M. le bourgeoys' (cf. PI.
134:2). The reason for dating this gun later
than those dealt with in the preceding chapter
is the greater breadth of the cock, the slight
change in form between neck of the cock and
lower jaw and, not least, the transfer of the
shoulder from the lock-plate to the inside of the
neck. This shoulder is formed by a ledge which
projects at a right angle and rests against the
upper edge of the lock-plate when the cock is
set or lowered (PI. 10:3). It is only as a result
of this change that the flindock becomes a fully
developed construction.
The steel of this gun has a thinner form, as
has the pan. A definite guide to this later
dating is provided by the shape of the butt.
Like most of the Le Bourgeoys guns it displays
an interest in experiment, which is to be
expected from the presumed inventor of the
flindock. The central section is in openwork in
order to make room for a metal weight in the
form of a toad. This was needed to balance the
weapon. It is now missing. The heel of the butt
is in the form of a volute. The triangular under-
side is apparent in the neck of the butt, but
behind that point it merges into the central
zone. However much Le Bourgeoys's butts
may vary, most of them follow in the main (as
regards the contour of the comb and underside)
the general trend. This trend is manifested in
the 1 620s by the underside of the butt curving
upwards — in the opposite direction to that of
the gun in the Renwick Collection.
41
Flintlock
The new type with angular profile is illus-
trated by a matchlock musket in the Musee de
I'Armee (No. M 35. PI. 16:1). It is dated 1629
on the butt-plate. This musket gives us a
welcome indication for the dating of the late
Le Bourgeoys gun, No. M 43 5 . Although
difficult to place exactly, it can probably be
ascribed to 1620 or thereabouts, possibly some-
what later.
The earlier claim that the flintlock was
constructed in 1630 does not hold good, as we
have shown above. It would be more reason-
able to claim the 1630s as the period of its break-
through; during this decade the material
becomes much richer and can be assigned with
less discussion than is necessary in the case of
the earlier flindock arms.
First to be mentioned are Philippe Cordier
Daubigny's pattern sheets (PI. 108. See pages
125-127) dated 1634 and 1635. Few of these
illustrate flintlocks. Then comes the gun of
1636 which has just been briefly mentioned. It
bears No. M 410 in the Musee de I'Armee and
figures in the inventory of the French Cabinet
d'Armes as No. 151 (PI. 17:1, 18:1, 19:1)*. It
was published in the collection of illustrations
of pieces from the Musee de I'Armee 4 . It is
identified by its number and by a cartouche on
the neck of the butt with the crowned mono-
gram of Louis XIII, a figure of justice and an
inscription which is reproduced word for word
in the inventory. The date 1636 just mentioned
is also on this cartouche. Its master, Francois
Duclos, received a 'brevet de logement' in the
Louvre Gallery on 2 January 1636, along with
Thomas Picquot 5 . Duclos' signature, which
has almost disappeared, is inlaid in gold on the
chamber of the barrel. That it really is his
signature is proved by a pair of wheel-lock
pistols in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
(Inv. Nos. 04. 3. 192, 193), previously in the
due de Dino's collection (PI. 19:2, 134:17)*.
Thomas Picquot played an important part in
providing information about the flindock arms
of the 1 630s through his album of engraved
designs for gunsmiths published by van
Lochum, Paris, in 1638 (PI. 109, no)*.
An unsigned gun in the Berlin Zeughaus
(AD 9404. PI. 17:2, 18:2, 3, 19:3-5) may be
ascribed to the same year or to the immedi-
ately succeeding ones. It is difficult to decide if
it was made in Paris or not, but its character is
at any rate thoroughly French. It can be
authenticated both as regards owner and date.
It is also of very great interest because of its
form and ornament. The gun is No. 163 in the
French Cabinet d'Armes 7 . The description tallies
in all but two details. First, the sight has
been replaced by a new one, and secondly the
inscription 'Desrogez m'a donne au Roy' is
missing. According to the inventory this should
be legible on the tang of the breech-plug, a
usual place for signatures in the middle of the
seventeenth century. As the numbering and
description conform in other respects we cer-
tainly do not err in thus identifying it. Paul
Post in the Zeughaus Guide of 1929 regards
this gun as a classic example of the Louis XIV
style and attributes it to Louis, le grand dau-
phin', b. 1661, d. 171 1 8 . There is, however,
sufficient material to show that French firearms
during the lifetime of this dauphin were quite
different in style. The auricular ornament,
which surrounds the dolphin inset in the butt,
never played a prominent part in French orna-
ment, but it makes the gun more typical of the
Louis XIII style. As the gun cannot for stylistic
reasons be considered to have belonged to 'le
grand dauphin' its strongly accentuated dolphin
motif, together with the heraldic lilies and
crowned 'l', must refer to Louis XIV as
dauphin. Its origin is thus restricted to the
years 1638-43.
A comparison between the locks of this gun
and of other pieces dating from the 1630s
described above shows definite agreement. Add
to this the report that the gun was a gift to the
king, a report which may well have been
founded on fact, for there is good reason to
suppose that the birth of the wished-for son
was the occasion of this gift to a monarch in
whose life shooting played a prominent part.
It is certain, however, that we are dealing with
a French flintlock gun, that it dates from the
years 1638-43 and that it corresponds to other
pieces dating from the 1630s.
If the decade 1630-40 in France is compara-
tively well represented we must in the case of
42
The French flintlock with flat surface. 1620-60
the 1 640s begin with the garniture of a gun
and a pair of pistols (Nos. 3983, 1347, 1608,
1609. PI. 20, 21:1-5, 22:i) 9 in the Livrust-
kammare. They have been ascribed by Rudolf
Cederstrom to this decade. Their character as
a garniture is an advantage, as this brings pistols
also into the series. There is no doubt of their
French origin as the pistols are signed on the
locks 'P. Tomas' and the gun — also on the
lock — 'thoma a Paris' (PI. 22:1). Cederstrom
states that the pistols belonged to Queen
Kristina. This is confirmed by the 1683 inven-
tory 10 , which was in all probability Ceder-
strom's source of information. The same
inventory states that the gun belonged to
Charles X Gustavus 11 . As the weapons con-
stitute a garniture we must accept the fact that
they were in Sweden when the Queen abdicated
in 1654. The date of their manufacture is,
however, shown to be earlier by comparative
material dating from the beginning of the 1650s
(cf. PI. 30:3-5), or about 1650 (cf. p. 49). The
only possible course is to attribute the garniture
to the 1 640s, as it clearly does not correspond to
pieces already discussed.
The conformity in shape, especially of the
locks, makes it possible to add to this garniture
three pistols signed by Parisian masters, a
single pistol signed on the lock 'Pierre Langon
a Paris' and on the barrel 'P. Laon' in the
Lowenburg, Cassel (No. W 1 1 5 7. PL 21 :6, io) 12 ,
and a pair in the Historisches Museum, Dres-
den (P.Z. 272), signed on the barrel tang 'Devie
a Paris' (PI. 21:7-9, 2 3 :6 > i34 - - 18 )- These are
characterized, like most of the undoubtedly
French flindock arms of this period, by their
high quality. They have pommels of ebony in
the form of negro heads finely sculptured in a
decidedly individual manner. The coat of arms
of the von Blumen family 13 is inlaid in gold on
the chambers (PL 21 :9).
With the material just assembled we have
reached the middle of the seventeenth century.
Examination of it and a comparison of the
results will give us a standard by which other
flintlock arms from about 1620 to about 1650
can be recognized and dated.
The cocks appear to have been very sensitive
to fashion and development. It has been
mentioned that one of the reasons for ascribing
No. M 43 5 of the Paris Musee de l'Armee to
1620, or a year or two later, is the greater
breadth of the neck and the gradual transition
between neck and lower jaw. The square head
on the cock-screw survives from the still older
flindock, as do the straight spur and the neck.
The projection for the buffer remains as a
barely noticeable rudiment on the belly since
its function has been transferred to the neck.
The rudimentary cocking foot of the snaphance
also remains in the form of a minute scroll, and
a similar ascending scroll breaks the long line
formed by the front of the cock. The earlier
spherical head of the jaw-screw has become
plum shaped.
The two cocks on Picquot's pattern-sheets
of 1638 resemble this type. The foliate terminals
of the volutes are slightly more developed and
the head of the cock-screw is decorated with
rosette shaped ornaments. The design of the
jaws at the front and back is of interest, but at
present we cannot produce any lock with these
details executed in this manner. In Philippe
Daubigny's designs the volutes of the cocks
display an exuberance which cannot be repro-
duced in steel. It would also prevent the normal
functioning of the cock. The heads of Dau-
bigny's jaw-screws are spherical and the
dividing line between the lower jaw and neck
is strongly marked. In this respect they are
old fashioned and represent the period before
1620. On the other hand, however, the cocks
are broad and the scrolls develop upwards both
at the front and rear, thus confirming their
connection with the 1630s. A detail which is
worthy of mention is the decoration of the
jaws with an eye and a jaw representing the
head of a monster. In this instance the decora-
tion is engraved. In the case of J. Henequin,
Metz, whose designs have been attributed to
the 1 620s, the monsters' heads are sculptured
in relief, thus signifying a different cultural and
geographical area (we shall return to this in a
later chapter). The engraved monsters' heads
of the 1 640s belong to the cultural area with
which are now dealing.
Of the two 1630 guns, that of the dauphin in
43
Flintlock
Berlin appears to have the older type of cock,
being very close to Picquot's design.
The Musee de l'Armee gun No. M 410, dated
1636, has a flintlock cock, the lower jaw of
which is definitely separated from the neck
(PL 18:1). It has also the same rudimentary
projection for the buffer as No. M 435 and the
head of the jaw-screw is plum shaped. The
scroll on the back has, however, become an
ornament filling up the entire curve. Dau-
bigny's engraving shows a certain tendency
to do so, the side of the back of the comb being
straight from the upper edge of the spur to the
front of the cock-screw. The point of the
foliage ornament on the front has begun to
move up towards the lower jaw. The neck and
the base of the cock have become more robust.
The cock-screw has a low head with a groove.
This tendency is continued in the cocks of the
Thomas garniture in the Livrustkammare,
where the ornament on the front extends to the
lower jaw and encircles the lower end of the
jaw-screwf. The entire ornament has moved
upwards so that the jaw-screw can no longer
be screwed right up when the cock is not pro-
vided with a flint. This can happen in all
earlier Netherlands snaphance and flintlock
cocks.
The lower jaw of the cock in the Thomas
garniture is distinctly separated from the neck,
but on the pistols the transition is gradual. In
both instances the V form is more accentuated
than on earlier pieces by reason of a round pro-
jection at the back immediately beneath the
spur. The projections with which the upper
jaw engages the comb are — viewed sideways —
rounded off at the rear. This is another new
feature, as are the shaped forms of the corners
of the mouths. The heads of the cock-screws
are in the form of roses, engraved on the gun,
in relief on the pistols and reminiscent of
Picquot's pattern-sheets. The sheet in Marcou's
series which is marked '4' (cf. p. 135) shows
exactly the same stage of development as this
garniture. In it the contour of the rear edge of
the lower jaw is also rounded.
The cock of the Langon pistol in the
Lowenburg conforms to Marcou's sheet '4',
except for the head of the jaw-screw. When
44
the plum shape could not be further elongated
the ends were flattened and pinched in the
middle. This is also the case on Marcou's sheet
'io'. The Devie pistols in this respect are of
transitional form. Both forms of jaw-screw
head may occur at the same time, but typo-
logically the Langon pistols are later.
An examination of the steels and pans leads
to the same result. The oldest forms are
illustrated by No. M 435 (PI. 11 :3). In contrast
to earlier clumsy steels, that on this gun is cut
straight on the front outer edges. At the
bottom a semi-circular recess has been filed
which runs out on one side in the pan-cover
and on the other in the arm of the steel. The
face of the steel is still rectangular. The steel-
spring is placed below the pan, which in
section is a long shallow rectangle. The lock-
plates on Picquot's pattern-sheets have recesses
of the same form where the pan should be.
The gun, Tower of London XII: 1442 (PI.
15 :3, 5), has the same shape of steel as that of
No. M 43 5 , but the scroll is missing. It has
also a steel-spring with arms of equal length
and turned leaf finial mounted outside the lock-
plate 14 . This, as also the presence of a buffer and
the square head on the cock-retaining screw,
may be reckoned as old fashioned features of
the lock. It has also an upright ledge at the rear
of the three cornered pan similar to that
required to stop the sliding pan-cover of the
wheel-lock and snaphance lock. In this detail
it resembles No. M410 of the Musee de
l'Armee. All locks belonging to this group,
except No. M 435, have pans with a triangular
section against the lock-plate. They were
subsequendy bevelled at the outer corners and
thus multi-angular. In the 1630s and later, the
upper corners of the steel were cut off, and in
the 1 640s we find some steels abrupdy trun-
cated at the top while others are rounded at
the top. Both types are, however, somewhat
angular. The Livrustkammare Thomas set (PL
20) and Marcou's engraving (PL in, 112)
provide relevant evidence in this respect. In
the 1 63 os the steel-spring was moved to the
inside of the lock-plate. In the 1640s the same
spring with a long upper arm and a short lower
one is found on the outside of the plate held
Plate 37.
Western Europe.
1 640s.
1 and 2. Garniture of gun and pistol, one of a pair; Vienna,
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Waffensammlung D 316 and
A 1 1 54. 3 and 5. Charles X Gustuvus's gun, gift from
Charles Gustavus Wrangel. 4 and 6. Gun; Stockholm,
Livrustkammaren 1297, 1545.
Plate 38.
Western Europe.
1 640s.
1, 2 and 5. Garniture of gun and pistol, one of a pair;
Stockholm, Livrustkammaren 1298, 161 2. 3 and 4. Pistols,
each one of a pair; Skokloster, Wrangel Armoury 43, 67.
Plate 39.
Western Europe.
Mid seventeenth century.
1. Gun; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Waffensamm-
lung D 362. 2 and 4. Gun; Copenhagen, Tojhusmuseet
B 661. 3 and 5. Charles XI's gun with half-cock lock which
is not a flintlock; Stockholm, Livrustkammaren 1333.
Plate 40.
Western Europe.
1630-40S.
'■Jm?< \
-%\ff
*/ &
1-4. Decoration in relief on the barrels of the gun on
PL 36:1, of gun No. M 14 in Sala d'armi, Palazzo ducale,
Venice, and of guns on PL 37:1 and 37:3.
by a screw from the outside. The gun of the
Thomas garniture has no leaf finial on the
steel-spring. On the pistols this spring is
engraved, but on the Langon pistol in the
Lowenburg it is chiselled in relief. The steel-
springs of the locks on Marcou's design-plates
also have leaf finials. Sheet V> which is more
old fashioned than sheet '10', shows a steel-
spring with a long and a short arm like the
Thomas set. On the latter sheet, however, the
upper arm and the lower, as well as the leaf, are
all the same length, as on the Langon pistol.
The oldest flintlock plates terminate in a
semi-circle at each end with a drop shaped
finish or blunt angular finish tapering into a
short point. They are broadest at the pan and
have, with two exceptions, the rectangular
edges found on the Hermitage Museum gun
and the Renwick gun. The plain, blundy
rounded form is usual. Daubigny adds small
foliage ornaments on his pattern sheets. This
gives them an old fashioned touch. Duclos has
designed the upper edge of the lock-plate
behind the pan of No. M 410 of the Paris
museum in a V curved recess (PL 18:1). This
occurs on several other locks of the period. The
edges of the plate of the Bourgeoys gun M 43 5
are slighdy bevelled like the two early flintlock
guns just mentioned, but not between the cock
and the pan. This bevel becomes more pro-
nounced so that the Duclos gun has a lock
with 'broken' edges. These edges become
broader where the lock-plate rises above the
surface of the stock. Hitherto the ornamenta-
tion has been uniform all over the plate and
the surface unbroken, but from the period of
the Thomas garniture, about half the area
behind the cock was on a lower plane. The
ledge thus formed was usually decorated with
naturalistic flowers. The rear point was drawn
out to a rounded tongue. On the whole the
profile of the entire plate has become less
abrupt and more drawn out. This is most
obvious on the pistols of the garniture, where
the bottom edge curves inwards and upwards
beneath the cock.
The tumbler and sear have also undergone
changes. The tumbler on No. M 43 5 has a
strongly curved spur (PI. 10:3) corresponding
The French flintlock with flat surface. 1620-60
to the hook of the mainspring which was now
more curved than before. Above the full-cock
notch there is just an indication of an outward
curve. In later locks this becomes a more or less
triangular projection and corresponds to the
upper edge of the nose of the sear. On the lock
of No. M 43 5 the nose of the sear is short but
the part behind the screw long. On No. M 410
of 1636 in the Musee de l'Armee this part is
also shortened. The tumbler in the latter has
the triangular projection just mentioned, in this
instance with the point rolled up to form a
volute. The tumbler and sear of this gun are
also examples of a construction which is usual
in this early period. It is found on the Livrust-
kammare gun No. 1307 (PI. 16:5). Thierbach
devotes a detailed description to this construc-
tion 15 . It is characterized by the sear being
divided into an outer part in one piece with the
sear-arm in the ordinary way, and an inner
one with a slightly longer nose. This inner part
is secured by an extra spring in the half-cock
bent. As this inner sear cannot be actuated by
the trigger it provides an effective safety device.
In the nose of the tumbler forming the full-cock
the corresponding part has been filed away.
The construction seems to have been aban-
doned shortly after the middle of the seven-
teenth century.
One of the reasons for ascribing the Paris
gun No. M 435 to about 1620 or a year or two
later, is the form of the butt. It resembles the
type represented by the matchlock musket in
the Musee de l'Armee, Paris (Inv. No. M 35),
dated 1629 on the butt-plate (cf. PI. 11:3 and
16:1). Here the central part and underside bend
out and downwards, and have been rendered
heavier by placing the belly towards the rear.
The earlier heel which was too sharp has been
rounded off. In other respects the butt, which
is short, retains its pronounced angularity.
The section of the butt of this musket and that
of the Paris No. M 410 of 1636 have practically
the same form.
Development continues with the butt becom-
ing elongated and rounded off, the first step
being for the comb of the butt to increase
in volume. The stage between No. M 410
and the Livrustkammare Thomas garniture is
45
Flintlock
represented by the Dauphin's gun in the Berlin
Zeughaus (PL 17:2). In it the body and comb
have merged, the latter having been given a
volume corresponding to the body. The
angularity is confined to the underside and the
curved thumb-rest. In other respects the section
is gradually rounded and narrows off towards
the comb. The Thomas garniture shows an
even more rounded gun butt. Only the boun-
dary between the body and the underside is
indicated by an angle and the comb of the butt
has increased in volume. The outline of the
comb is turned slightly outwards and the belly
of the underside moved forward about two-
thirds the length of the butt from behind. A
detail of the Thomas garniture which deserves
special attention is the small carved leaf (PL
21 : 5) on the left side of the stock in the angle
by the breech. It occurs on several stocks made
about and after the middle of the seventeenth
century.
There are entirely plain butts dating from the
first half of the seventeenth century (Livrust-
kammaren Inv. No. 1280), but generally they
had some kind of mount. Once the heel of the
butt has become rounded and broad enough,
as in the case of the early guns in the Tower of
London Armouries (XII: 1131) and the
Victoria and Albert Museum (PL 15), it is
protected by a sheet of metal. Other guns have
a thin plate nailed to the back, as for instance
Livrustkammaren Inv. No. 1307 (PL 16:4) and
the Paris De la Gardie gun. Much more
common, especially in finer arms, however, is a
thick butt-plate attached with three screws.
This butt-plate, often richly decorated, occurs
at an early stage, definitely by the beginning of
the seventeenth century. A French wheel-lock
gun in Berlin (Zeughaus Inv. No. A D 9048),
the Aumon gun of 161 3 in the Musee de
l'Armee (Inv. No. M 95) and the Henequin gun
of 1 62 1 in the Bavarian National Museum (Inv.
No. 1733. PL 104:3) are examples. As long as
the butt has a straight finish at the back the top
screw is placed as high up as possible and
marks the position of the rod which is occasion-
ally used to strengthen the comb of the butt.
When the heel of the butt is rounded off the
butt-plate extends a short distance along the
46
comb. Here, as a rule, it is abruptiy cut off so
that the screw passes obliquely or straight
from above as on the Zeughaus gun No.
A D 9404 and the Livrustkammare Thomas
garniture.
What has been said is quite sufficient to show
how the arms chosen here as representatives of
the group can invariably be placed in the same
order whether we follow the development of
the cocks, lock-plates, butts or of other details.
Only one note should be added here about the
trigger-guards as an additional factor by which
French seventeenth-century arms can be dated
with even greater certainty. If we compare No.
M 529 (PL n :i) and No. 139 of the French
Cabinet d'Armes both in the Musee de l'Armee,
which belong to the decade 1610-20, with the
Paris musket of 1629, we find in the latter a
closely related trigger-guard that indicates a
development and resembles Inv. No. A D
9404 (PL 17:2) of the Zeughaus. The entire
rear part here is pressed in against the small
of the butt, and the angle of extension at the
rear has been made as small as possible. The
pistols of the Thomas garniture (PL 20:2, 3)
have trigger-guards in which this rear part has
been set in close to the butt and the front end
split and folded, one flap forward and one
backward with the screw passing through the
former. On the Langon pistol in the Lowen-
burg (PL 21 :6) the rear part of the thin trigger-
guard is also divided. There are triangular
apertures between the flaps. The actual guards
on the trigger-guards of most French wheel-
lock guns and the Bourgeoys guns are quite
broad, although they look thin when viewed
from the side. The trigger-guards of French
flintlock arms of the 1630s and several decades
later are moderately broad and are, in the
earlier part of this period, also thin when seen
sideways.
The Florentine gunsmith Antonio Petrini
was the author of a treatise De arte fabrile
dated 1643, one copy of which, dedicated
to Lorenzo Medici, is preserved in the Biblio-
teca Magliabecciana (XIX: 16) 16 while another
is in the Tower of London Armouries". This
publication deserves to be printed in its
entirety^ . Parts of it are reproduced by Eugene
Plon in his great work on Benvenuto Cellini 18 .
Petrini mentions that the French barrels have
a bead-sight at the muzzle and that they are
half round, half square in section. This last
statement seems obscure but is explained if we
assume that Petrini only counted the edges
one sees on the barrel and not those hidden by
the stock. In the present thesis the word
octagonal is used to describe this formation.
©•</b •
/^^ ./est* yfartai&f/
■ <zJVtb- SJ1.
Petrini reproduces six marks (reproduced
above) with the information that they are found
on French barrels. For the rest Petrini con-
sidered that the French barrels were fragile,
burst easily, and were badly forged 19 .
The round bead which Petrini claims to be
typical of the French barrels is found on Marin
Le Bourgeoys' guns of the 1620s (cf. PL 12:5).
Such beads are by no means general and as a
matter of fact the sights vary most considerably
in form and position up to the middle of the
seventeenth century. The statement that the
chamber is octagonal does not hold good until
the 1630s and even then not without exception.
Indeed there is a type in which the edges of the
chamber gradually merge into the round form
of the rest of the barrel. No. M 410 (cf. PI. 17:1)
of the Musee de l'Armee is an example of this,
and there are several others. The chambers of
the Thomas garniture, on the other hand, are
clearly outiined in front, and the edges of the
angles are bevelled so that the chamber is
sixteen sided. The barrel is, as a rule, attached
with pins and with a screw passing up through
the trigger-guard into the tang.
The ramrod-pipes are cylindrical up to the
1 640s when a slight profile portends the very
elaborate forms of the following period. The
absence of a rear pipe on all definitely French
guns before the middle of the seventeenth
century is noticeable. The ramrods have, as a
The French flintlock with flat surface. 1620-60
rule, a long closed ferrule. The ramrods of the
Thomas garniture are finished off with a turned
finial which is not, however, new in French
gunsmiths' work. It is on the Henequin gun in
Munich and on a pair of wheel-lock pistols
dating from 1610-20 in the Chronological
Collection of the Kings of Denmark at Rosen-
borg, Copenhagen (Inv. Nos. 7-137, 7-147.
PI. 51:1). It is, in fact, not unusual on early
Scottish snaphance pistols as well as on
Netherlands and Italian arms of the middle of
the seventeenth century.
To summarize: No. M 435 of the Musee de
l'Armee is ascribed to about 1620, or some-
what later. Picquot's pattern-sheets have much
in common with the style of the 1620-30
decade and are at any rate old fashioned for the
year of their publication, 1638. The same can
be said of Daubigny's sheets dated 1634 and
1635, although the old fashioned features are
less prominent. The gun No. M 410 of the
Musee de l'Armee, dated 1636, can be regarded
as being an advanced type, but with certain
minor features surviving from Marin Le
Bourgeoys's period, such as the elaborate butt.
In comparison with this, No. A D 9404 of the
Berlin Zeughaus has a butt winch is more in
keeping with the current fashion. The Thomas
garniture in the Livrustkammare can be
confidently placed in the 1640-50 period. This
also applies to the pair by Devie because of the
necessity of dating the more advanced Langon
pistols in the Lowenburg to the 1640-50
period also. They are pushed back into that
period by comparison with the succeeding
Wender group and the rest of the examples of
the 1650-60 period illustrated in Chapters Six
and Seven. Sheets '4' and '10' of Marcou are
contemporary with the Thomas garniture and
the Langon pistol. On this basis it becomes
possible to date quite a number of arms, the
placing of which is impossible by any other
method. No great number of French flintlock
weapons of the decade 1620-30 is to be
expected. I do not at present know of any
examples other than those already pro-
duced. Circumstances are different for the
1630-40 and 1640-50 periods. It can also be
said that the flintlock had by this time emerged
47
Flintlock
from the experimental stage and was ready to
be manufactured on a large scale.
The gun No. 1307 (PI. 16:3-5) in the Livrust-
kammare, a gun with both flint and matchlock
in the Musee de l'Armee (No. M 411. PI. 16:2)
and a small number of pistols with butt mounts
and ramrod-pipes of sheet silver with delicate,
neady executed ornament can be ascribed to
the 1630-40 period. The best preserved pair is
in the Wrangel Armoury at Skokloster (No. 61.
PI. 24 :i) 20 . It is signed on the lock-plate with
the initials '1 d'. A pair of pistols in the Berlin
Zeughaus (Inv. No. A D 9477) closely related
to these have been very largely restored and
deprived of nearly all their original mounts. A
third pair is preserved in the Musee de l'Armee
(Inv. No. M 1724) 21 . They have been very much
shortened, the joint on the fore stock having
been concealed by an engraved silver band. Its
decoration indicates that the change was made
during the latter half of the eighteenth century.
In the fine collection of rubbings of details on
French flintlock weapons belonging to the
Staatliche Kunstbibliothek, Berlin (O. S. 825)
there is one of a magnificent lock-plate on sheet
'3' (if the tide page is reckoned as number V,
PI. 22:2) that can definitely be assigned to the
1630-40 period. This shows, among other
things, the rectangular recess for the pan, an
old fashioned feature, and the steel spring on
the inside of the plate. For the 1630-40 period
the rubbing of the large lock-plate on sheet '22'
(PI. 23 13) of the Berlin collection may also be
taken into consideration.
Another group, also of pistols, with stamped
ramrod pipes but with coarser decoration and
with pommels of thin sheet silver follows
closely upon the group of pistols just men-
tioned. The Wrangel Armoury at Skokloster
contains three pairs of this group (two pairs
illustrated here, No. 68. PI. 24-3, and No. 70.
PL 24:2). There is still another pair in the
Gewehrgalerie, Dresden (No. 15 51. PL 24:4)
stamped by the master 'f c'). He also signed
the pair No. 70 in Skokloster, but in this case
with engraved initials. The pair No. 68 which
is signed on the lock-plates with a stamp bear-
ing the initials '1 l' and a star in an angular,
crowned shield 22 has pommels of exacdy the
48
same design as the pistols in Dresden. These
are perhaps some ten years later. Definitely
attributable to the 1640-50 period is a pair of
pistols in the armoury of Malta (Inv. Nos. 96,
98)" signed 'Mathieu Desforets fecit a Paris'.
These have pommels similar to the pistol in the
Lowenburg. Among the rubbings in Berlin
there is one on sheet '5' and two on sheet '10'
which represent the form of the 1640-50 period
in France: these show the varying lengths of
the steel-spring arms and the signature on the
bevelled edge (cf. the Thomas gun in the
Livrustkammare). Unfortunately the signa-
tures cannot be read except partially in one
instance, '. . . A Bergerac' 24 (PL 23:1). This,
however, provides interesting evidence of the
distribution of the manufacture of flindocks at
this time.
For the 1640-50 period several rubbings in
Berlin may be mentioned. The names of
Beradier, Cunet and Mayer (PL 23 :2) 28 , all
three in Lyon, and Raguet (PL 23 13), who does
not mention where he lives, appear on these.
This again shows that there was a widely
spread manufacture of fine quality flintlocks as
early as the 1640-50 decade, probably all over
France.
During the period from 1630-50 it had not
yet become the rule to sign firearms. For this
reason the question of nationality of the flint-
locks of this period is often rather difficult to
answer. Stamped ramrod-pipes and pistol
pommels, the presence of a rear ramrod-pipe,
an upper-jaw sliding with a projection in
a groove on the spur and the construction
mentioned above with a split sear are details
pointing to the region on both sides of the
northern and north-eastern borders of France.
It is therefore probable that the Livrust-
kammare gun with Inv. No. 1307 (PL 16:3, 4, 5)
may be described as French. The gun is an
early one. It has a butt that is rather more old
fashioned than that of the matchlock musket
dated 1629 in the Musee de l'Armee (PL 16:1).
Its trigger-guard is of the same kind, the head of
the jaw-screw is of short plum shape, the
tumbler can be compared with that on the
Windsor gun and Tower of London XII: 1442
(PL 14, 15) and the sear is of an old fashioned
length. If we date the gun about 1630 there is a
greater chance of its being earlier rather than
later. The upper jaw of the lock slides with a
projection in the groove of the spur and the sear
is divided. The gun with combined flint and
matchlocks on the same plate in the Musee de
l'Armee (PI. 16:2) has a ramrod-pipe. The
pistols No. M 1724 in the same museum,
the pair, No. A D 9477, in the Zeughaus,
and those at Skokloster (PI. 24) show the
characteristic stamped ramrod-pipes. The
trigger-guard on the pistol (PI. 24:2), moreover,
is of characteristically wide form and has two
almost right-angled bends, a form that obvi-
ously precedes the rounder one.
In the middle of the seventeenth century the
flindock seems to have reached a stage of its
development that enabled the designers to
concentrate their interest on another problem.
This was the manufacture of flintlock arms
with which several shots could be fired in rapid
succession. The most pronounced expression
of this endeavour is the Wender construction.
The German term 'Wender' is used here
because it has to a certain extent become
customary, whereas the French terms 'fusil
tournant', 'carabine tournante', etc., are seldom
met with in the international literature of arms.
The term 'revolver' again is apt to be associated
with nineteenth century constructions. The
Wender type (cf. PL 112:2) is confined to flint-
lock weapons and implies that two or more
barrels, each provided with a pan and steel,
are mounted with the ends of their breech-
plugs in an oval plate. This plate, with the
barrels, rotates around a pin fixed in a corres-
ponding plate in the butt portion of the
weapon. These plates are controlled by a bolt
which locks the constructions either by a
separate pin or one attached to the moveable
trigger-guard. The barrels are turned by hand.
The part of the lock comprising the cock and
mainspring is mounted on the butt portion of
the weapon and has a horizontal mainspring
at the rear. This gives the tumbler a special
shape.
The Wender construction appears to have
been most popular for some ten years after its
invention. It was used, though on a minor
The French flintlock with flat surface. 1620-60
scale, until the end of the century and during
the eighteenth century in Germany, but hardly
at all after that in western Europe. Pietei
Starbus Sr., who had immigrated from Amster-
dam, made Wender guns in Stockholm at the
close of the seventeenth and the beginning of
the eighteenth centuries. The Wender con-
struction called for great skill on the part of the
smiths. Its weak point is that the member
connecting the barrel and butt sections rapidly
becomes worn when in use and consequently
soon becomes slack. During the Napoleonic
Empire the manufacture of Wender arms was
resumed in France.
Among the signed Paris examples are three
good specimens of this construction dating
from the middle of the seventeenth century.
One is a Wender gun, signed 'Thobie a Paris'
on the lock, in the Lowenburg at Cassel (No.
W 1339. PI. 25 :i, 4). The others are a pair of
pistols, signed on the lock 'Choderlot a Paris',
in the Tojhus Museum, Copenhagen (No.
B 672, B 673. PI. 25 :2, 3). In dating these arms
the weapons of the 1640s mentioned above
constitute the terminus post quern. For the
terminus ante quern no French arms dated to a
definite year are at present available. Com-
parison with the Tojhus Museum gun No.
B 625 (PL 30:3) provides such clear guidance
that we may take its date 1652 as the latest
possible year: the development may even date
from a few years earlier. The Tojhus Museum
gun is signed by Cornells Coster of Utrecht.
Further support for this dating can be found in
a pair of pistols by Jan Knoop, also an Utrecht
master. The pistols are in the Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam (Inv. No. 6098. PL 30:5). Accord-
ing to tradition they belonged to Admiral
Martin Tromp (d. 1653). His coat of arms is
on the pommels.
With this criterion certain other French
Wender arms manufactured in Lyons can also
be dated, and in this way the group enlarged.
Amongst these are a pair of pistols in the
Wrangel Armoury at Skokloster (No. 64. PL
26:1) signed by Claude Roux 27 , another pair
in the same armoury (No. 63. PL 62:2) signed
by Cunet, and, finally, a Wender gun in the
Tojhus Museum, Copenhagen (No. B 675)
49
Flintlock
signed 'Claude Cunet a Lyon'. All are signed on
the locks. With the help of these Lyon arms
the examples are sufficiendy varied to enable us
to work out a development in the Wender
group. They display somewhat later forms
than the Paris made Wender arms.
The locks of the Wender group are flat like
the earlier flintlock arms. The cocks on the
Paris made weapons are simpler, without
volutes, and have a very characteristic straight
spur, flat in front with a groove in which the
upper jaw moves by means of a flat projection.
The heads of the cock-screws have a cruciform
groove and are chiselled in relief. The jaw-
screw of the Thobie gun is elongated and plum
shaped, that of the Choderlot pistols com-
pressed and slighdy contracted in the middle.
This is a form which we recognize from the
Langon pistol in the Lowenburg (cf. PI. 21 :6).
Of the Lyons pieces, the pistols by Claude
Cunet show an ordinary French cock with
volutes and jaw-screw head of an elongated
pear shape. The jaw-screw heads of the Cunet
weapons are pear shaped. On the gun the upper
jaw embraces the straight spur, but the spurs
of the pistol cocks are of purely Wender type.
The most striking change has taken place in
the neck and body of the cocks, which have
been given the form of animals, on the gun a
dog whose tail becomes a coil with leaves and
flowers, on the pistols, winged monsters.
All the steel-springs of the group are of the
same kind with short under-leaves. This we
have learned to recognize as a feature of the
1640-50 period. The foot as well as the spur of
the steel is very small. The Thobie gun, how-
ever, has a spur in the form of a curled leaf
although the steel-spring is placed on the
inside of the plate.
A very remarkable novelty in the Wender
group is the side-plate. In most cases it takes
the form of one, or a pair of fantastic animals
and serves as a more or less broad connecting-
link between the lock-screw heads. On some
non-French arms the side-plates are so strongly
reminiscent of those on the French wheel-lock
weapons (cf. PL 29:4, 5 and 108:4), that one
is tempted to assume there must be some
connection. A Wender by David of Liege (PL
29:1), is so old fashioned in comparison with
French examples that it might well be asked if
the construction was first made outside France,
and French manufacture was a later develop-
ment.
The trigger-guards of most of the Wender
arms are very simple. This looks retrogressive
but is explained by the fact that they fulfilled
the function of both catch and spring for the
Wender mechanism and could not therefore be
made strong or forked. Where the bolt of the
mechanism works in another way the trigger-
guards were nevertheless of thin and simple
construction.
The gun by Thobie helps us with the
typology of the gun-butts by its rounded butt
in which every angularity has disappeared. Its
similarity with Cornells Coster's gun of 1652
is striking. The comb is in both cases curved
slightly outwards, the underside curved with
the belly placed rather far forward. The Cunet
Wender in Copenhagen is still at the stage
where the butt is angular at the foot and
retains the curious flattened projection of the
side of the butt as seen on the gun in PL 30:2.
The ramrod-pipes are slightly profiled. In a
few cases folding iron ramrods take the place
of the ordinary straight wooden ones in the
pistol butts. The ends of these ramrods form a
button in the middle of the butt-caps (cf. PL 25:2,
26:2).
The pistol pommels are an interesting and
important aid in dating. They will be dealt with
later. Attention should however be called at
this early stage to the short spurs on the butt-
caps of the Choderlot pistols. Admiral Tromp's
pistols by Jan Knoop of Utrecht, have butt-caps
with still longer spurs. This gives us reason to
suppose that the Admiral did not acquire them
long before his death in 1653. The Choderlot
pistols are important evidence in assigning the
origin of these spurs to as early as c. 1650 or the
late 1 640s.
It remains to be said of the Wender group
that the signatures are engraved with charac-
teristic calligraphic flourishes, a way of signing
that is restricted, at the most, to some
ten years in the middle of the seventeenth
century.
50
On account of its close conformity of style
a gun of Bock construction (two fixed barrels,
one above the other; two locks) by Abraham
Meunier, Geneva, preserved in the Tojhus
Museum, Copenhagen (No. 680. PL 26:3),
can be included in this Wender group. The
locks have the usual characteristic features of
this group, but the butt is old fashioned. This
gun, which is intimately connected with purely
French arms, has been chosen to introduce in
the following chapter the question of the
distribution of flintlock manufacture.
Editor's Notes
* A facsimile edition of this was published by
the Swedish Royal Armoury in 1950 with
an introduction by Dr Lenk.
f In other words the cock is ring-necked.
I This treatise has since been published by
General A. Gaibi in Armi Antiche. Part I
in the issue for 1962, Part II in that for
1963.
Notes to Chapter Your
1. I have previously (Konsthistorisk tidskrijt.
III. Pp. 132, 137) expressed the opinion
that Philippe Cordier Daubigny's pattern
sheets (PI. 108) show the types of the 1620s
although they are dated from the middle
of the 1 63 os. This opinion is untenable.
They are undoubtedly in the main an
expression of current types.
2. Guiffrey, Invent aire general du m obi Her de la
couronne. T. II. P. 58. Un fusil de tres gros
calibre, de 4 pieds 4 pouces, le canon cou-
leur d'eau, dore de rinceaux sur le bout et
sur la culasse; la platine gravee en taille
d'espargne sur un bois de poirier, dont la
crosse est vuidee en consolle, peinte de
rinceaux d'or sur un fond rouge des deux
costez, dans laquelle il y a un crapeau de
plomb.
3. Guiffrey, Invent aire general de m obi Her de la
couronne. T. II. P. 61. Un tres beau fuzil, de
4 pieds 7 pouces, pour servir a mesche et
a fusil, le canon dore en couleur d'eau sur
le bout et sur la culasse ou sont les armes
de France; la platine gravee en taille douce
The French flintlock with flat surface. 1620-60
et taille d'espargne, ay ant un mascaron
dore et applique sur le milieu sur un bois
noir, dont la crosse est gravee d'une piece
de rapport de cuivre dore, representant la
Justice, au bas de laquelle est escrit hac
Lodoice oculos tibi ccBca reliquit, fait par
Duclos.
4. Le Musee de l'Armee. Armes et armures
anciennes. T. II. Pp. 133, 134. PL XLI,
XLI bis and XLVI.
5. Guiffrey, Logements d' 'artistes au Louvre.
(Nouvelles archives de l'art francais. II.
Pp. 65, 128.)
6. Cosson, he Cabinet d'armes de Maurice de
Tallejrand-Pe'rigord, due de Dino. P. 100.
No. K. 8.
7. Guiffrey, Inventaire general du mobilier de la
couronne. T. II. P. 63. Un grand fuzil tres
riche, de 5 pieds \, le canon couleur d'eau,
rond par devant et a pams sur la culasse
enrichie de fleurs de lis, dauphins et d'L
couronnees, ayant un dragon de cuivre
dore de relief qui sert de visiere; la platine
gravee d'une chasse de cerf en taille douce
sur un bois d'ebeine; la crosse persee dans
laquelle est enchasse un dauphin de cuivre
dore; sur la queue de la culasse est escrit:
Desroge% m'a donne au Roj.
8. Post, 'Das Zeughaus'. Die Wajjensammlung.
T.I. P. 138.
9. Livrustkammaren. Vagledning 192 1. P. 54.
No. 380. P. 61. No. 466.
10. Livrustkammaren 1683. P. 53. No. 3. Palace
Archives.
11. Ibid. P. 60. No. 28.
12. Communicated by Captain Joh. Stockel,
Copenhagen.
13. Communicated by Dr Erna v. Watzdorf,
Dresden.
14. A leaf forms the extension of the rigid arm
of the spring beyond the screw. This
elongation usually is in the form of a leaf.
15. Thierbach, Die geschlichtliche Lntwickelung
der Handfeuerwaffen. P. 66.
16. Boeheim, Meister der Waffenschmiedskunst.
P. 56.
17. ffoulkes, Inventory and survey of the Armouries
of the Tower of London. Vol. I. Pp. 89, 90.
51
Flintlock
18.
19.
20.
21.
Plon, Benvenuto Cellini. Pp. 397-401.
'Le Canna Franzese hanno un bottone in
cima, e sono mezze tonde, e mezze quadre,
in esse Si trovano varie impronte. Le quali
son queste. Queste non sono molto, per-
fette, perche sono frangibili, e facili a
crepare, e mal tirate.' Petrini, De arte
fabrile, manuscript in the Tower of London.
This number, like others on weapons in the
Wrangel Armoury, is indicated by the
figures stamped into the stock.
Robert, Catalogue des collections composant le
Muse'ed'Artillerie—igfy. T. IV. P. 309. 'Pair
de petits pistolets probablement italiens,
de la deuxieme moitie du XVIII: e siecle.'
22
$
23
24
Laking, A catalogue of the armour and arms
in the armoury . . . in the palace, Valetta,
Malta. P. 10. PI. VII.
Town in Dordogne.
25. A lock signed 'Mayer a Lyon' belongs to
the Musee de la Porte de Hal, Brussels.
Inv. No. 5105.
26. Example in the Brahe-Bielke Armoury,
Skokloster.
27. There is a gun signed 'Claude a Lyon' in
the Orbyhus (Sweden) Armoury.
52
-He
4&<
'1 " i
Plate 41.
Western Europe.
Mid seventeenth century.
1-4. Decoration in relief on the barrels of the guns on PI.
37:4, 38:1 and 39:1 and 2.
Plate 42.
Western Europe.
1 640-5 OS.
Locks of the guns on PL 37:3, PI. 38:1 and 39:2.
Plate 43.
Western Europe.
1640-50S.
•>.
r\
i
Vi?5l
1 and 2. Butt-plates of guns on PL 37:1 and 39:2. 3 and 4.
Trigger-guards on the guns on PI. 36:2 and Skokloster,
Wrangel Armoury 112. 5 and 6. Details of the gun on PI.
39 : 3-
Plate 44.
Western Europe.
1650s.
Pistols, each one of a pair. 1 . Skokloster, Wrangel Armoury
46. 2. Restocked. Sabylund. From the Wijk Collection.
3. Stockholm, Livrustkammaren 4813.
Plate 45 .
Western Europe and
France, Sedan.
c. 1660.
1-3 . Gun. Stock signed ' Johan Eberhard Sorrier' ; Stockholm,
Livrustkammaren 48/1. From the Saxon Grand Ducal
Armoury in Schloss Ettersburg. 4. Gun, signed 'r. r.' and
'Sedan'. Schwarzburg 1002.
Plate 46.
Western
Europe.
1650s.
1. Lock of Pistol on PI. 44:1. 2. Lock of pistol on PL 44:3.
3. Lock of gun PI. 45:1.
Plate 47.
OBjSF* ♦ * »"
Western Europe and
France, Sedan.
1 65 os and c. 1660.
Decoration in relief on barrels. 1. The gun on PI. 45:4.
2. The gun on PI. 45 :i. 3 and 4. Pistols; Stockholm, Livrust-
kammaren 4813 (PI. 44:3), 4814. 5. The pistol on PI. 44:1.
Plate 48.
Western Europe.
1650s.
Butt-caps. 1 and 3. The pistol on PL 44: 1. 2 and 4. The pistol
on PI. 44:2. 5-7. Pistols; Stockholm, Livrustkammaren
4813 (PL 44:3), 4814.
Plate 49.
France.
Mid seventeenth century.
1 and 4. Sword with same motif as the lock on PI. 37:6.
2, 3 and 5. Charles X Gustavus's sword, bought in Paris
1654; Stockholm, Livrustkammaren 5817:1, 3869.
Plate 50.
Western Europe.
c. 1660.
Pistols made for Louis XIV; London, Wallace Collection
V: 916, V: 917.
Plate j i.
Western Europe,
i 610-60.
Pistols, each one of a pair. 1. Wheel-lock pistol. French.
1610-20; Copenhagen, Rosenborg 7-137. 2. Flintlock
pistol, 1630-40S. From Akero (Sweden). 3 and 5. Pistol
1630-40S; Skokloster, Wrangel Armoury 66. 4 and 6. Pistol
by Johan Ortman of Essen. 1640s. Lowenburg Castle W
1 1 59. 7. Butt-ball of pistol on PI. 52:1.
Plate 52.
Netherlands,
Maastricht.
1650-60S.
Ivory stocked flintlock pistols, each one of a pair. 1. By
Louroux; Skokloster, Wrangel Armoury 56. 2. By same
master; Ilgner Collection, Berlin. 3 and 5 . By Jacob Kosters ;
Copenhagen, Tojhusmuseet B 920. 4 and 6. By Johan
Louroux; Stockholm, Hallwyl Museum A 16.
CHAPTER FIVE
The distribution of flintlock manufacture up to
the middle of the seventeenth century
IRms of the types described in preceding
/\ chapters as French of the 1 640-5 o period
J_ \^and Wenders were made about the same
time. We also find that flindock arms of this
period which are not definitely French show
features derived from both types. An example
is the pistol with chased silver pommel illus-
trated in PI. 24:4. It has the spur and side-plate
of the Wender group, although otherwise it
belongs in type to the other pistols illustrated
in the same plate.
During the period from 1630 to 1650 the
manufacture of flintlocks had already become
widely spread, and in the middle of the seven-
teenth century it existed in the Netherlands,
England, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. This
statement is based on the existence of arms
which, according to the system worked out
above for dating French firearms, should bear
that early date. Some time lag must, however,
be taken into account. Before making an exact
estimate of the spread of flintlock manu-
facture, more detailed local investigations
should be undertaken. In doing so it must be
remembered that the signing of firearms only
becomes common in the middle of the seven-
teenth century. The identification of many
unsigned weapons and of others with un-
deciphered marks might show this distribution
in a different light. The armouries at Skokloster
offer important and interesting material for
such a study.
That Metz may come to be reckoned among
the earliest places of manufacture is shown by
Jean Henequin's pattern-sheets. A pair of
pistols by 'Jean Preuot a Metz' of about 1630 in
the Wrangel Armoury (No. 33. PI. 28:2) gives
further support to this assumption. Outwardly
they resemble flintlock weapons but have a
horizontally moving sear which forms a half-
cock in front of the cock. It is also worthy of
special note that they have a rear ramrod-pipe
and fore-end plate.
In the Pauilhac collection is a pistol by
'Montaigu a Metz' (PL 28:3) with barrels
decorated in a technique reminiscent of the
Dauphin's gun in Berlin (cf. PI. 19). This again
has a simple trigger-guard divided in front, a
steel-spring with short under-arm and a cast
silver pommel in the form of an eagle's head
and a grotesque mask pointed upwards. All
this taken separately would justify its being
attributed to the early 1640s. At the same time,
however, the cock in the form of a monster,
53
Flintlock
the constricted jaw-screw head, the signature
with calligraphic flourishes and the well
developed spur of the steel point very definitely
to the period about 1650.
A pistol in the Zeughaus, Berlin (Inv. No.
AD 1336. PI. 27:1, 2) made in Sedan is the
earliest known piece after that of Metz. This
pistol is signed on the barrel 'Ezechias Colas a
Sedan' (PL 134:6). The cock is very simple and
straight. The belly shows an uneven contour
just where one might expect a ledge if the lock
had had a buffer. The neck is curved in a
similarly suggestive manner. The cock has a
scroll at the bottom of the back with a definite
upward curve. The cock is attached to the
tumbler by a screw from the inside, and has a
rose engraved on the base. The steel-spring is
placed beneath the flat pan. The lock-plate is
flat with floral decoration engraved at both
ends against a dark, stippled background. The
part of the guard immediately beneath the
trigger is very broad and is abruptly curved.
The front end of the trigger-guard serves as a
screw. The edges of the chamber are accentu-
ated by filed ridges which fade into the round
section of the barrel. The butt-plate is a long
oval plate of iron fixed with a screw. The
spherical head of the latter can be turned with
a pin through a lateral hole. The screw has a
small turned ball on the top.
As a whole this pistol shows so many old
fashioned traits that it might be representative
of the 1630-40 period. A further detail is
worthy of notice: the safety catch for the
tumbler. The sliding button of the latter with
its cruciform groove is placed on the outside
of the plate. The triangular fields formed by
that groove are chiselled with leaves. This way
of decorating the head of the cock-screw was
adopted during the 1640s and 1650s. The pistol
probably need not be attributed to a later date.
It is worth while calling attention to this
detail as archaic forms were often preserved,
especially in provincial centres.
Similar archaic forms appear on another pair
of pistols signed by the same master in the
Historisches Museum, Berne (Inv. No. 3902.
PI. 27 1}) 1 . As a whole they show great similarity
to the Berlin pistol. They are, however, con-
siderably shorter, and the spur of the cock is
shaped like a round peg. This fits into a hole
in the upper jaw of the cock. The locks are
rounded in form. We shall return to this below.
On a pair of pistols signed 'Jean du boy A
Sedan' on the locks (Skokloster, the Wrangel
Armoury No. 44. PI. 28 :i) we find the same old
fashioned features in the barrels with ridges
fading away and the steel-springs placed inside
of the lock-plate. Everything else, however,
indicates that they are later: the slightly fuller
forms, the very full scrolls of the cocks and the
acorn shaped head of the cock-screw, the short,
sunken ledge with naturalistic flowers on a
dark, stippled ground at the back of the lock-
plate and, not least, the trigger-guard. The
forward, divided end of this is formed in front
as a lobate leaf. Apart from this the angle
formed by the two arms is filled by a fluted
ornament. It is difficult to say how much
earlier than 1650 these pistols could be dated,
but taking everything into consideration they
must belong to the latter half of the 1640s.
The pair of pistols in the Livrustkammare
(Inv. Nos. 1694, 1695. Lock PL 27:4) can be
dated with more confidence to the 1640s. They
are signed 'Gabriel g a S' on the barrels and
'gabriel gourinal A.S.' on the locks. The round
heads of the jaw-screws are old fashioned. The
simple trigger-guards and the spur are typical
of the group.
In his history of Liege, Gobert expresses the
opinion that the world-wide fame of the city
as a producer of arms is due to its production
of flintlocks. He bases this on information in
Hertslet, Diplomatic and consular reports No.
6 jo 2 . It is difficult to judge now how true this
may be. It is nevertheless certain that Liege,
because of its favourable situation, and its
capacity as a free state, could supply anyone
willing and able to pay. This was the case
during the Thirty Years War, the very period
when the flintlock first became an article of
export, and its manufacture thereafter increased
all over Europe. Right from the Union of
Utrecht to the Peace of Westphalia in 1648
there was close co-operation between Liege and
Maastricht 3 in the manufacture of arms.
As far as the former town is concerned we
54
have evidence in a three barrelled Wender in
the Livrustkammare (Inv. No. 5305. PL 29:1, 4)
signed 'David a Liege' on the lock. This was
probably Arnold David, master of a four
barrelled but somewhat later Wender in the
Musee de la Porte de Hal, Brussels (previously
in Consul-General Jean Jahnson's collection at
Stensund, Sweden). The Livrustkammare gun
has a flat lock-plate with a bevelled edge,
finished off at the back with a chiselled trilobate
leaf. The corners of the mouths of the cock-
jaws are similarly treated and the jaw-screw
head is slighdy constricted in the middle. This
along with strongly V curved side-plate (PL
29:4) enable us to date it about the middle of
the century. Otherwise there is a suggestion of
local tradition in the trigger-guard which is
only divided at the near end and stands clear of
the stock right up to the butt-plate screw, in the
ridged octagonal barrel with multi-lateral
chamber and especially in the butt with its
clearly defined and angular body. It is the
existence of this gun in particular that has given
rise to the hypothesis already mentioned that
the Parisian Wender arms may go back to an
older, non Parisian type. Of about the same time
is a pair of pistols signed 'Jan Aerts Mastricht'
in the Renwick collection, previously in the
Edwin E. Brett collection*. They are closely
related in style to the Livrustkammare's
Thomas garniture but have the constricted
jaw-screws just mentioned. This indicates a
date about 1650. The ornament is characterized
by naturalistic flowers on lock, butt mounts,
ramrod-pipe, fore-end and ramrod mount. The
presence of a rear ramrod-pipe is remarkable.
Another Maastricht master who was active at
the same time was Jan Kitzen. As examples of
his work a Wender gun in the Lowenburg on
Wilhelmshohe, Cassel (Inv. No. W 1338. PL
29:2), and a pair of Wender pistols in the
Wrangel Armoury, Skokloster (No. 63), may be
mentioned. All three arms are signed on the
locks, the gun being also marked on the barrels
with '1 k' and a star above a double eagle 6 .
They are all so alike that they might belong to a
garniture. The body and neck of the cocks are
formed as monsters. The upper jaw runs with a
projection in a groove in the spur of the cock.
The distribution of flintlock manufacture
The lock-plates are finished off behind with
heads of monsters in relief. On the pistols the
counterparts of these are carved in the left sides
of the stocks. The trigger-guards belong to the
type that is divided at the forward end, and the
triangular hollow thus formed is filled up. The
rear arm lies close alongside the stock and
terminates in a leaf. Very representative is also
a pair of pistols in the Wrangel Armoury,
Skokloster (No. 71. PL 29:3, 5) by La Pierre,
Maastricht. Their side-plates are closely related
to those on the David Wender in the Livrust-
kammare.
From the large town of Aachen, which is
very close to Maastricht, we have a Wender
pistol, formerly in the Lowenburg, Cassel
(now missing) (Inv. No. 1204), signed 'Mateis
Nutt in ach' and furnished with a mark
containing a stag's head 6 . Both the signature
and the mark are on the barrels. The lock-
plates have at the rear end the same monster
heads in relief as the Maastricht weapons just
mentioned.
In Gelderland where the Berkel runs into
the Ysel lies Zutphen. From this town comes a
pair of Wender pistols signed 'Te Zutphen'
and 'Van densande' (PL 30 :i) 7 . These pistols
have several French features of the 1630-40
period, such as the flat lock-plates and the
trigger-guard which is only bent upwards and
backwards at the front. But the steel-spring
with a long and a short arm belongs to the
1 640s. The rounded lobes of the upper jaw
with which it engages the spur of the cock are
also later in type. Finally, the jaw-screws,
constricted from above, and the presence of
embryonic side-plates date the pistols to the
middle of the seventeenth century.
Signed pieces from Utrecht are more numer-
ous but later. The starting-point is the gun
mentioned above in the Tojhus Museum,
Copenhagen, by Cornells Coster which is dated
1652 (Inv. No. B 625. PL 30:3). The lock-plate
has much in common with the Livrustkammare
Thomas garniture, but is thicker. The sunken
ledge at the back has an engraved grotesque
mask. The corners of the mouths of the cock-
jaws are chiselled in relief according to the
type noticed in the Thomas garniture and the
55
Flintlock
upper jaw runs with a projection in a groove in
the spur of the cock. The head of the jaw-screw
is constricted at the top. The trigger-guard is
also distinctly heavy yet old fashioned. The
completely rounded butt fully corresponds to
our expectations on the basis of the conclusions
we have reached above. It is curved downwards
both on the upper and under sides and the
lower edge of the body is faintly outlined on
the left side. Leaves are carved at the lock and
breech. There is a rear-pipe and the ramrod is
turned with a distinctly raised profile.
By the same master and dating from about
the same period is a pair of signed pistols in
the Wrangel Armoury at Skokloster (No. 53.
PL 30:4)-
We have already mentioned Admiral Martin
Tromp's pistols by Jan Knoop, Utrecht (PL
30:5). They give a good basis for dating flint-
lock arms of the middle of the seventeenth
century.
The Tojhus Museum, Copenhagen, possesses
a number of arms by Jan Flock (also 'Flocke'),
Utrecht. Two three barrelled Wenders, Inv.
Nos. B 618 and B 619 (PL 30:2) may serve as
examples. The steel-springs with equally long
arms indicate a somewhat later date of manu-
facture than the other Utrecht weapons. In
other respects, however, these guns are more
old fashioned. The ledges on the lock-plates,
strikingly elongated, are emphasized by bevel-
ling and engraving. The cocks with forms of
about 1650 have plum shaped heads on the
jaw-screws. The sculptural treatment of the
cock-screw heads looks forward to the next
group in date. The butt of the one gun corres-
ponds with the Coster gun of 1652 mentioned
above, but the other still retains a pronounced
body which sweeps upwards and terminates
in a projecting roundel on each side of the butt.
From the under side a spur turns outward — as
on the 'pistol butt' of our own day. A pair of
Wender pistols in the Livrustkammare (Inv.
No. 19/17) and a pair of pistols in the Wrangel
Armoury at Skokloster (Inv. No. 248) can be
included in this early flintlock production of
the mid seventeenth century. Both pairs are
signed by Kasper Dinckels (Deinckels), also of
Utrecht. They lack side-plates and rear-pipes
56
and are therefore old fashioned. The Wender
pistols have the round barrels usual in the
Netherlands and, like the Livrustkammare
Thomas garniture, butt-caps without spurs.
The second pair has barrels with octagonal
chambers. These are bevelled in front into
sixteen sides like the barrels of the Thomas
garniture. The caps have short spurs along the
sides of the butts, thus foretelling the future
trend. The butt-caps of both pairs are decorated
with coarse reliefs.
The part played by the Netherlands in the
early manufacture of the flintlock is un-
doubtedly considerably greater than is apparent
from the material presented here. It would be
of great importance if this could possibly be
investigated.
Among the unsigned flintlock arms which
are early enough to belong to this chapter is a
group with two locks for one and the same
barrel. This is represented in the Wrangel
Armoury at Skokloster (Inv. Nos. 223, 62.
PL 31 :i, 2) by a gun and a pair of pistols (Inv.
No. VI: 116), in the Rotunda at Woolwich by
one of a pair of pistols* and in the Historisches
Museum, Dresden (No. F 464), by still another
pair of pistols. The barrels have the elongated
ridges which we already know from the pistols
by Ezechias Colas of Sedan, and Montaigu of
Metz. On a number of the locks in this group
the upper jaw of the cock glides on a circular
peg, as do the Colas pistols in Berne. These facts
may serve as a guide in finding the centre or
centres of production of the group. This has
not yet been achieved. It is true that the group
offers certain similarities to another, larger one,
thus throwing some light on the first appear-
ance of the flintlock on German territory. This
problem of the initial spread of the construction
on German soil is very complicated. A few hints
only can be made towards the solution here.
As our starting point we choose a fully
developed flintlock gun preserved in the
Zeughaus, Berlin, with the Augsburg master
Martin Kammer(er)'s mark on both the barrel
and the lock, and with his initials on the barrel
(Inv. No. AD 8694. PL 32:1). It bears a
striking likeness to two snaphance guns in-
cluded under No. 138 in the inventory of the
French Cabinet a" Arms formerly preserved in
the Rotunda, Woolwich, and now in the Vic-
toria and Albert Museum, Nos. M.4, 5-1949.
The lock of the latter especially offers points of
comparison. In the Berlin Zeughaus there is
also a snaphance gunf which has much in
common with those at Woolwich. In the
Wrangel Armoury, Skokloster, there are still
other pieces that can be included in the group.
Judging by the form of the lock-plates one
is rather inclined to call these locks Italian.
Like the latter they are also marked on the
inside of the plates, except two at Skokloster,
which are marked on the outside.
Whether the types of locks regarded as
Italian, really are of Italian origin or not is open
to argument. The typical character of these
locks, here considered as Italian, is that the
lower edge of the lock-plate expands in the
middle, usually forming a point, and that
between this and the fore end of the lock-plate
there is a round notch in the edge. This notch
is still more prominent on the wheel-locks. It is
found on a very early group of wheel-locks
with the lock-plate extending as far forward as
the dog-spring and in which this latter has a
very long upper and a short under-arm. In the
under-edge of the lock-plate a notch is made
corresponding to the part of the upper spring-
arm projecting beyond the lower shorter one.
This detail is found at an early date on pistols
in the Armeria, Madrid (Nos. K 30, K 35)8,
and recurs on a pistol in the Livrustkammare
(Inv. No. 1573) 9 . On this the notch is shorter,
and still more so on the six Netherlands wheel-
lock muskets in the Livrustkammare of 1596 10
(Inv. Nos. 1 204-1 206, etc.). As to southern
Germany we may mention a wheel-lock gun
in the Musee de l'Armee, Paris (Inv. No.
M 142). This has a Nuremberg mark and is
ascribed by the author of the select catalogue
of this museum (Part II, 1927), to the close
of the sixteenth century 11 . He states that
before the beginning of the seventeenth century
Italy imported locks from Germany, especially
from Suhl and Nuremberg. It would be very
interesting to examine the evidence on which
this opinion is based. It seems probable,
however, that this was the casej.
The distribution of flintlock manufacture
The same tendency to rhomboidal lock-
plates also occurs in France. It is still discern-
ible in the 1630s and is only discontinued
during the latter half of the century. In the
German group with which we are dealing we
encounter 'Italian' form both on retardatory
pieces in the style of the 1630s and also on
pieces that follow the contemporary style.
The Kammerer gun in Berlin which, as far
as the form of the lock is concerned, is an
example of a direct borrowing, should be given
an early date in view of the period in which this
master is known to have worked. A gun made
by him in the Historisches Museum, Dresden,
is dated i654 12 . It has been possible to attribute
the gun in Berlin to master and place by the
marks. A further study of marks will probably
add much more material to this group.
It is to this group that we assign the garni-
ture of gun and pistols signed by Felix Werder,
Zurich (PI. 32:2, 3). The gun, a light flintlock
carbine with the signature 'Felix Werder
Tiguri Inventor 1652' is preserved in the
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (Waffen-
sammlung No. A 145 4) 13 , to which it came from
Amras. It was once considered to date from
the very earliest days of the flintlock (cf. above,
p. 10). This probably gave rise to the theory
that the construction was a Swiss invention.
The pistols were published by E. A. Gessler 14 .
He gives a detailed history of the origin of the
garniture.
The gun No. 244 in the Wrangel Armoury,
Skokloster, and a pair of pistols belonging to
Queen Kristina in the Livrustkammare (Inv.
Nos. 1610, 161 1. PI. 31 :3, 4) 1B show such great
similarities that they might form a garniture.
They are unsigned but belong to the same
group as those by Kammerer and Felix Werder
with which we have just been dealing. Locks
and trigger-guards provide convincing com-
parisons, and the dating, based on the form of
the butt and on these comparisons, is to the
middle of the seventeenth century. There is
another gun in the Wrangel Armoury, Skok-
loster (No. 252) that belongs to the group. It
has a flat lock-plate stamped with a mark on
the outside. The group is, however, as has been
indicated above, considerably larger.
57
Flintlock
From the middle of the seventeenth century-
it became usual to sign flindock weapons, and
with the help of these signed weapons it
becomes easier to establish the centres of flint-
lock manufacture in Germany. The lock of a
blunderbuss signed 'Valentien Triebel' in the
Artillery Museum, Oslo (Inv. No. A 41. PL
33 :i) 16 illustrates in certain respects the French
type, but is simpler and coarser. The butt
belongs to the completely rounded type with
slightly downward bend and is therefore quite
un-French in its form. Triebel does not tell us
where he lived, but 'Heinrich Moritz a CasseP
on the other hand does so — on the lock of a
breech-loading gun with turn-off barrel in the
Tojhus Museum, Copenhagen (Inv. No. B 543.
PL 33:2). The gun is still more closely con-
nected with French or Netherlands prototypes
with its volute decorated cock, slightly con-
stricted plum shaped jaw-screw head and a
chiselled rose in place of the cock-screw, and
trigger-guard of divided form. The upper jaw
slides with a projection in the groove of the
comb of the cock. Another early German flint-
lock with dog-catch is fitted on a gun with stock
by Johann Michael Maucher of Schwabisch
Gmund 1 '. Maucher is known from works dated
between 1670 and 1693. The Orbyhus 18 gun
should most probably be dated before 1670;
how much it is difficult to say at present. The
lock is based on western European forms of the
1640-50 period, as is the trigger-guard. This is
divided at the near end where a lobate leaf form
recalls the 1640-50 period. In Germany there
was a considerable time lag in the development
of the flintlock. A striking proof of this is pro-
vided by a breech-loading gun in the Tojhus
Museum, Copenhagen (Inv. No. B 572. PL
33:3). It bears on the lock the signature 'Jean
Hennere Albrecht', and, on the barrel, the
inscription '1667 zu Braunfels gemacht'. Dating
by French standards we would have placed it
in the 1 65 os.
In Augsburg too French influence can be
recognized from the middle of the seventeenth
century. A pair of pistols with tortoise shell
veneered stocks in the Livrustkammare (Inv.
Nos. 1734, 1735. PL 33 :4) conform most closely
to the western European Wender style, but the
58
stocks show Italian influence. They can be
localized by the presence of the Augsburg pine
cone mark on the undersides of the barrels.
Later in style, but according to French stan-
dards not after 1650, is a pair of pistols in the
Historisches Museum, Dresden (Inv. No. 354 b.
PL 34:1, 2) 19 . They form part of a large sporting
gun garniture which includes a wheel-lock gun
dated 1669. This is signed by Melchior
Wetschgin. A gunsmith of this name is known
to have lived at the time in Vienna 20 , but
'Augsburg' is engraved on the lock-plates of
the pistols. These pistols were influenced by a
style which first appears in Paris in the 1650-60
decade.
Gessler states in his guide to the Swiss
Landesmuseum that the French flintlock was
introduced in Zurich in 165 6 n . From the point
of view of form there is nothing against two
flintlock muskets illustrated in the same guide
(PL 45) belonging to this period. They have
flat lock-plates. A flintlock gun by Jakob
Erhardt, Basel, with a curious lock — it has
three cocks on the same plate, rotating steels
and catches 22 — shows, on the whole, the forms
of the middle of the seventeenth century. It is
included in an arsenal inventory of 1662.
Flintlock manufacture in Sweden is first
definitely recorded during the 1670s and there
are Swedish flintlock weapons dating from this
period 23 . They show a western European style
characteristic of the 1660-70 period. There is
evidence, however, which indicates an earlier
manufacture, viz. the Swedish Board of Trade
letter to Reinhold Rademacher of Eskilstuna, of
25 April 1662, in which the Board makes rules
for the amount of work the employees in his
factory should be able to do in a week. Under
the heading: 'Fyrlaasmacharen allena om
weckan' (The firelock maker alone per week) is
included 'Fysien till montera ... 8 a 9 st.' (The
assembling of ... 8 to 9 guns), and 'Leuff
(Lauf) eller Roorsmeden medh 2 Gassar'
(Barrel or Gunsmith with two boys) should
manage 9 'Fysien pipor' (Gun barrels) 24 . The
letter does not actually mention flindocks;
wheel-locks and snaphance locks, on the other
hand, are mentioned. This tallies very well
with a gun in the Livrustkammare (the Sack
Armoury. PI. 34:3-5), the skilfully made flint-
lock of which is in definite contrast to the
coarse barrel and birchwood stock. These are
probably of Swedish make. The lock has the
older, flat form with cruciform-grooved cock-
screw head, the upper jaw sliding on a projec-
tion in the groove of the spur, the cock related
to those we have already mentioned in the form
of monsters and the steel-spring with one long
and one short arm. Tumbler and sear are old
fashioned in comparison to western European
forms of about 1650 (the Wender group). On
the inside of the lock is a stamp with the letters
'lis' 25 . Captain Joh. Stockel has kindly
supplied the information that marks of this
type are found on locks made in Suhl and Zella.
Stock and trigger-guard on the Livrustkam-
mare gun are also related to German forms (cf.
the gun in PL 31 13). It is most closely allied to
the earlier German group, to which it must
indeed belong if the theory of Swedish mount-
ing proves untenable.
The manufacture of flindocks was also begun
in Italy at an early date. In studying the north
Italian manufacture of arms in the middle of
the seventeenth century we should bear in
mind Evelyn's note in his famous Diary during
a visit to Brescia in 1646. He mentions that the
population of the town consisted mosdy of
craftsmen (artists) and that every shop was full
of arms. Most of the craftsmen came from
Germany 26 . This may be a satisfactory explana-
tion of the direct borrowing of contemporary
Italian forms of arms in Germany during the
decades about the middle of the seventeenth
century. When the flintlock appears in Italy it
is, however, of French type.
A painting, Vanitas by Boel and Jordaens in
the Musee ancien, Brussels 27 , shows a collection
of worldly goods with which vain man persists
in filling his existence. Among numerous
magnificent things lies an Italian gun with a
flintlock. The cock is modelled in the form of a
monster, the jaw-screw is of an elongated
plum shape, the lock-plate flat, finished off at
the back with long pointed ledge, and with an
internal steel-spring. All these details point to
the 1630-50 period in France. The lock is
The distribution of flintlock manufacture
mounted in an Italian walnut stock with pierced
iron mounts. This gun has its direct counter-
part in a pair of pistols in the Moscow armoury
(No. 8094. PI. 35 :i) 2 «, the barrels of which are
signed 'Lazarino Cominazzo', and the locks,
characteristically enough, 'Gio Francese in
Brescia'. Another pair of pistols in the same
armoury with quite flat locks practically in the
French manner of about 1640 (No. 8095. PI.
35 :2) 29 shows still more clearly how locks of a
French type were mounted in what were other-
wise purely Italian weapons. A gun in the
Musee de l'Armee, Paris (No. M 544. PI. 35:3),
is reminiscent of that in the Boel and Jordaens
painting. It is not so beautiful in form, but it is
of the same type and of the same period.
The immediately subsequent development
can be studied in a pair of Wender pistols in the
Livrustkammare (Inv. No. 20/9. PI. 3 5 14). They
are typical of the middle of the seventeenth
century, and in the Walters Art Gallery,
Baltimore, is another pair of pistols which were
published by Stephen V. Grancsay in The Art
Bulletin for June 1936 30 . These also have the
forms of the Wender group and are very
reminiscent of some of the relief decorated
arms that form the subject of the following
chapter. Grancsay attributes them to the period
about 1670 and bases this dating on com-
parison with a pair of wheel-lock pistols in the
Armeria, Turin (Nos. N 41, N 42) 31 , which are
dated 1665 and 1666 on the locks. I consider,
however, that the pistols in Baltimore are
somewhat older. The question of dating Italian
hand firearms is not yet solved. Grancsay points
out the great interest of the pistols published
by him, namely that they are signed 'Gio. Batt.
Francino' on the barrels, 'Piera Alsa in Brescia'
on the locks, and 'Gio Marno in Brescia fece'
on the stocks.
Editor's Notes
* This pistol is now in the Victoria and Albert
Museum (No. M 86-1949). It is illustrated
in European Firearms, J. F. Hay ward. PI.
XV, No. 32. The pair to it, once in the
Berlin Zeughaus, is now in the Polish Army
Museum, Warsaw.
59
Flintlock
| Presumably yet another one from the Paris
Arsenal, which was, of course, looted by
the Prussian troops under Marshal Blucher
as well as by the British under Wellington.
+ Certainly locks were imported from Ger-
many into Italy, but this does not mean
that there was not, at the same time, a
healthy local production at Brescia and
elsewhere.
Notes to Chapter Five
. i. Communicated by Captain Joh. Stockel,
Copenhagen.
2. Gobert, Liege a trovers les ages. Les rues de
Liege. T. II. P. 29. C'est surtout a partie de
ce XVI :e siecle, avec Fintroduction du
fusil a silex, que Liege conquit la renommee
universelle en la matiere.
3. Gobert, Ibid. P. 69, based on Laminne:
Note sur la manufacture d'armes au pays de
Liege.
4. (Grancsay), The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Loan exhibition of European arms and armor.
P. 82. No. 329.
5. Cf. Stockel, Haandskjdevaabens Bedommelse.
I. P. 229.
6. Cf. Stockel, Haandskjdevaabens Bedommelse.
I. P. 229.
7. Photograph kindly given to the author by
the firm of E. Kahlert and Son, Berlin.
8. Valencia, Catdlago historico-descriptivo de la
Real Armeria. P. 305. Fig. 287 (should be
278).
9. Cederstrom and Malmborg, Den aldre Liv-
rustkammaren 16 J4. PI. 79.
10. Ibid. PI. 55, 56.
11. Le Musee de l'Armee. Armes et armures
anciennes. T. II. Pp. 109, no. PL XXXVII.
1 2. Ehrenthal, Fuhrer durch die Konigliche Gewehr-
Galerie ^u Dresden. P. 19. No. 169.
13. Grosz and Tomas, Katalog der Waffensamm-
lung. P. 204. No. 9.
14. Gessler, 'Der Gold- und Buchsenschmied
Felix Werder von Zurich.' An^eiger fur
Schwei^erische Altertumskunde. Neue Folge.
Vol. XXIV. Pp. 113-17-
15. Livrustkammarinventarium 1683. P. 5 3. No. 5.
Palace Archives.
16. Katalog over Artillerimuseet pa Akershus.
P. 26.
17. Boeheim, Meister der Waffenschmiedekmst.
P. 129.
18. Communicated by Baron Rudolf Ceder-
strom.
19. Ehrenthal, Fuhrer durch die Konigliche Gewehr-
Galerie ^u Dresden. Pp. 29, 30.
20. Stockel, Haandskjdevaabens Bedommelse. P.
3I? -
2 1 . Gessler, Schwei^erisches Landesmuseum, Fuhrer
durch die Waffensammlung. P. 122.
22. Thierbach, Die geschichtliche Entwickelungder
Handfeuerwaffen. P. 78. Fig. 176. Gessler,
'Ein Dreischussegewehr mit Steinschloss
aus der Mitte des siebzehute Jahrhunderts.'
Zeitschrift fur historische Waffenkunde. Vol.
VI. Pp. 139, 140.)
2 3 . Lenk, F lintlastillverkningens inforande i Sverige.
(Personhistoriska bidrag. Rig. 1935. Pp.
135, 136.)
24. Hellberg, Eskilstuna. (En svensk markes-
stad. D.I. Pp. 196, 199.)
25
»
26. Evelyn, Diary, Vol. I. P. 268.
27. Fierens-Gevaert and Laes, Catalogue de la
peinture ancienne. P. 56. No. 237.
28. Opis moskovskoj oru^ejnej palati. Picture 416.
Text vol. III. P. 309.
29. Opis moskovskoj oru^ejnej palati. Picture 416.
Text vol. III. P. 309.
30. Grancsay, 'A pair of seventeenth century
Brescian pistols'. The Art Bulletin. 1936. Pp.
240-46.
31. Armeria antica e moderna di S. M. il Re
dTtalia in Torino. Ser. 3. PI. 179.
60
Plate 53.
F: ■ -
pi &
4
Netherlands, Maastricht;
Germany Grevenbroich.
1660-70S.
1, 6 and 7. Christian V's pistol, one of a pair, by De la Pierre
of Maastricht; Copenhagen, Tojhusmuseet B 918. 2. Fred-
eric I V's pistol, one of a pair, by De la Haye of Maastricht;
Copenhagen, Rosenburg 13-848. 3 and 5. Pistol by 'H.
Renier'; Buch Collection, Copenhagen. 4. Pistol with iron
stock by 'Jan Cloeter a Grevenbroch' ; Copenhagen,
Tojhusmuseet 904 B 904.
Plate 54.
Western Europe.
Mid seventeenth century.
1.
Charles X Gustavus's pistol, one of a pair, by Barroy;
Stockholm, Livrustkammaren 1629. 3. Pistol, signed 'A
Lesconne'; Lowenburg Castle W. 12 10. 4. Part of lock of
pistol on PL 55:1.
Plate
55-
Augustus the Strong's pistols by Casin of Paris; Dresden,
Historisches Museum H.19.
Plate 56.
France, Paris.
c. 1660
Gun by Thuraine and Le Hollanders of Paris; Copenhagen,
Tojhusmuseet B 662.
CHAPTER SIX
Mid seventeenth century flintlock
arms with relief decoration
In Skokloster and the Livrustkammare are
preserved a number of guns and pistols
whose mounts are chiselled with ornament
so similar that they can be identified as a group.
There are similar weapons in other places, but
the majority is to be found in Sweden. The
group was probably never very large and was
probably produced over a short period in a
restricted area. These arms are of the type that
was preserved for artistic reasons and as
curios, while other simpler and commoner
pieces became worn out and disappeared. It
has not been possible to establish definitely the
place (or places) of production for this whole
group. It is, however, so closely bound up with
what we already know of the Franco-Nether-
lands manufacture of flintlocks during the
earlier half of the seventeenth century that it
may be considered to have originated there.
The reasons given in previous chapters for
dating by form are also applicable to the
weapons belonging to this group. De Lucia
asserts that the two guns, belonging to this
group and preserved in the Armoury in
Venice, are Italian 1 . Ossbahr, however, has
published in his catalogue of the Schwarzburg
Zeughaus a gun belonging to this group which
is some ten years later than those in Venice
and is signed 'A Sedan' 2 . He regards another,
somewhat earlier, gun in the same repository
as French, though with some hesitation 3 . In
early guides to the Livrustkammare the same
writer was more convinced of the French origin
of the group. Later guides also state that they
are French, but with some hesitation. This
opinion was repeated by Otto Smith in the
Tojhus Museum 1938 4 centenary publication.
In the Livrustkammare inventories of the end
of the seventeenth century they are called by
the French term 'fusil' ('fisin') 5 . This does not
however prove French manufacture.
A general division of the material gives us
three sub-groups with transitional forms in
between. One is characterized by chiselled
ornament running lengthways on the barrels.
It is usually associated with a certain amount of
repetition in the decoration on the lock
including, in particular, a monkey on the fire
steel. A second group is chiselled in relatively
high relief with a few figures framed in car-
touches. Finally there is a third group with low
relief chiselling, in most cases with small
figures. The second group is the largest.
To the first group, that with the relief
61
Flintlock
designs running along the barrels, belongs a
gun in the Tojhus Museum, Copenhagen (Inv.
No. B 660. PL 36:1), another in the Wrangel
Armoury, Skokloster (No. 250. PL 36:2, 5)
and a third in the castle of Kranichstein outside
Darmstadt (Inv. No. 223. PL 36:4, 6) 6 . Besides
these I know of two barrels with later mounts,
one of which is with a lock signed 'Cunet a
Lyon' 7 , privately owned in Sweden, the other
on a gun signed by the Stockholm stockmaker
Jonas Schertiger Jr. and quite typical of his
period (Livrustkammare Inv. No. 181 3). The
Tojhus Museum and the Skokloster guns have
locks with almost identical decoration. The
cock takes the form of a dragon snapping at a
monkey which has taken refuge in front of the
blade of the steel. An enraged lion chiselled
on the lock-plate defends itself against the
flames from the dragon's jaws. On the Tojhus
Museum gun an insect is carved on the lion's
tail and, in the background, is an animal
resembling a camel 8 . There is also a material
difference in that the lock on the Tojhus
Museum gun is rounded in form, the pan is
convex and the steel gently rounded. The lock
of the Skokloster gun has, on the other hand, a
flat plate with 'broken' edges and a marked
ledge at the back, together with a convex pan
and steel. In both instances the heads of the
jaw-screws are plum shaped, the Skokloster
one being of a somewhat rounded, cylindrical
form. We have seen in previous chapters that
the forms we encounter on these locks are
characteristic of French flintlock arms of not
later than the middle of the seventeenth century
and that the sharp angles in the trigger-guards
justify a still earlier attribution. The butt of
the Skokloster gun is most closely related to
the 1640 garniture by P. Thomas in the Liv-
rustkammare (PL 20). An attribution of the
Skokloster gun to the beginning of the 1640s
would therefore be the most convincing solu-
tion. The Tojhus Museum gun with its more
pronounced angular butt and carved moulding
along the comb of the butt is more old
fashioned and, as far as can be judged, goes
back to the 1630-40 period unless it is to be
regarded as a retarded form.
62
The Kranichstein gun seems by reason of its
entirely rounded butt to be later in date. The
period within which these guns were manu-
factured cannot, however, exceed ten years.
The Kranichstein gun thus brings us to 1650
at the latest. The ornament of the lock of this
gun differs from both the others (cf. PL 36:6).
The relief is still high, but the wild animals are
replaced by a winged deity on the cock and a
jovial, smiling old man's face on the steel. On
the lock-plate St Hubert kneels in front of
Christ in the form of a stag while a hunter
behind the cock is busy with his dogs and
carries his gun on his shoulder. This huntsman
wears a costume in the fashion of the mid
seventeenth century. This fact enables us to
check the accuracy of the general dating of the
group.
The reliefs on the barrels of all three guns,
as well as the other barrels mentioned here, are
divided by a ridge running along the top of
the barrel. On both sides of this ridge are
carved scenes from the chase directed altern-
ately towards the breech and towards the
muzzle. This transmits a rhythm which is
further accentuated by trees placed at definite
and equal distances (cf. PL 40:1). The Tojhus
Museum gun and the Skokloster gun show
exclusively hunting scenes, whereas pastoral
motifs have found their way into the hunting
scenes of the Kranichsetin gun.
To this early group of the flintlock weapons
with relief ornament of the mid seventeenth
century belong a pair of pistols in the Wrangel
Armoury, Skokloster (Inv. No. 30. PL 36:3).
They probably form a garniture with the gun
just mentioned. They have plain barrels with
longitudinal ridges like the pistol by Ezechias
Colas, Sedan, in PL 27:1, trigger-guards with
sharp angles, cocks of V form chiselled in relief,
plum shaped heads on the jaw-screws and, on
the lock-plates, a scene with Orpheus playing
to the wild beasts.
The connection with the next group is
established by the two guns in the Venice
armoury (Inv. Nos. M 14, M 1 5). On the lock of
the second we find both the monkey and lion,
but the cock has a different form. On the lock
of the first we see the monkey only, while the
lion's place has been taken by children at play.
The reliefs on the barrel of No. M 14 (PI. 40:2),
which are also peopled by children at play,
extend along the front part of the chamber and
the barrel and are divided by a ridge along the
top. In front of this the direction of the relief
changes so that on the forward part the
decoration points towards the muzzle and on
the rear part towards the breech. The decora-
tion continues towards the muzzle with a spiral
part through which tendrils intertwine towards
the sight.
On the second gun in the Venice armoury
(No. M 15) the entire relief decoration runs
upwards towards the muzzle. The tendency
towards a rhythmic arrangement which can be
recognized in the placing of the groups of trees
on the longitudinal reliefs is given another
form by framing the figures in cartouches. The
butt of this gun is more old fashioned than that
of No. M 14, though not so much so as that of
the Tojhus Museum gun.
The trigger-guards of both the Venice guns
are of the same kind, bending gradually with
the fore-end folded in and forming a screw.
The rear part stands free of the stock for its full
length. It is then fixed in the stock by a screw
passing through a hole pierced in it. These
trigger-guards have the closest affinity to that
of the Dauphin's gun in the Zeughaus, Berlin
(cf. PL 17:2) attributed to the period 1638-43,
the first year most probably being the correct
one. To this may be added the elongated plum
shaped heads on the jaw-screws — so that all
the evidence points to the period about 1640.
The figures on both of these guns display a
lively and vigorous Baroque style. On the one the
cartouches are of the doughy sculptural form
characteristic of Italian and Nordic Baroque,
and also — though less markedly — of French
Baroque inspired by these sources. Other
weapons with this same kind of cartouches are
known. Of these a gun in the Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Vienna (Waffensammlung Inv. No.
D 316. PI. 37:1, 40:3 and 43 :i), is typologically
older. The cartouches are filled with groups of
tiny figures and should for this reason be
included in the last sub-group. Its other
features, however, assign the gun to the sub-
Mid seventeenth century flintlock arms
group of larger figures. A pair of pistols in the
same museum (Inv. No. A 1154. PI. 37:2) date
from the same period and probably form a
garniture with the gun. On these only the locks
are decorated in relief, like the pistols in
Skokloster.
The cartouches on a gun in the Livrust-
kammare (Inv. No. 1297. PI. 37:3, 5, 40:4 and
42 :i) are still more doughy and form grotesque
masks. This weapon was a gift from the builder
of Skokloster, Charles Gustavus Wrangel, to
Charles X Gustavus 9 . On our system of dating
it should be ascribed to the 1640-50 decade —
preferably in the earlier years. This attribution
is endorsed by the trigger-guard, sharply
angled at the back and rounded in front. The
thin, inlaid bone or horn lines on the butt are
related to the inlaid silver wire used in orna-
menting angles on those flindock arms dis-
cussed in the preceding chapter, dealing with
earlier guns decorated by Marin Le Bourgeoys
up to the 1 640s. The head of the jaw-screw is
constricted at the middle, a shape which,
together with the plum, belongs to the period
about 1650. The reliefs on the lock are rather
coarse. At the back of the plate grins the head
of a monster of the kind found on Lorraine and
Netherlandish arms of the first half of the
seventeenth century. Under the pan a warrior
in a Roman suit of armour sprawls on a some-
what uncomfortable bed of trophies. This very
warrior and the trophies are reproduced on
sheet '21' (PL 112:1) of Marcou's pattern book
(cf. p. 135), the cock on sheet '2', the steel on
sheet '8' and monsters' heads of very similar
form appear on several of the sheets. The
presence of the decorative features of the lock
in Marcou justifies our assumption that the gun
is French*.
In western European — especially French —
art the trend is from the flaccid, doughy form
typical of the cartouches of the present gun to
one of greater restraint. By applying this
principle we can classify the variant style to
which Charles X Gustavus's gun in the Liv-
rustkammare belongs. This is characterized by
a few figures of large size. It will then be found
that locks, butts, trigger-guards, etc., consti-
tute a convincing typological series which
63
Flintlock
illustrate a natural growth. We must of course
allow for an occasional exception, but the main
trend of development becomes evident in this
way.
Next to Charles X Gustavus's gun comes
another in the Livrustkammare (Inv. No. 1545.
PI. 37:4, 6, 41 :i) 10 . The barrel of this gun is
decorated with scenes from the story of
Hercules in cartouches formed as open lion's
mouths. In comparison with the cartouches on
Charles X Gustavus's gun these show greater
definition and stability. The rectangular heel of
the butt is more old fashioned, but in other
respects the guns are so alike in their construc-
tion that we can assume them to be fairly con-
temporary, though Charles X Gustavus's gun
is likely to be the older.
A garniture comprising a gun and a pair of
pistols in the Livrustkammare (Inv. Nos. 1298,
161 2, 161 3. PI. 38:1,2, 5, 41:2 and 42:2)" should
be dated slightly later. The gun belonged to
Charles X Gustavus, the pistol to Queen
Christina 12 . The set offers so many similarities to
the Thomas garniture of the Livrustkammare
that its origin in the 1640-50 period can be
accepted. The butt of the gun is of the same
curved type, angular at the foot, and the
trigger-guard is gently rounded and folds in
at the front. The pistol trigger-guards, on the
other hand, have not yet lost the two sharp
bends, even if these have been slightly modified.
The pistol butt-caps have unfortunately been
lost but we can nevertheless note that they had
embryonic spurs. The pistols have angular
steels and pans, and the corresponding parts
of the gun are rounded. The head of the jaw-
screw of the gun is long and plum shaped; on
the pistols it is compressed above and has a
ring top. The simultaneous use of the rounded
and flat forms lasts throughout a lengthy period.
The variations in the heads of the cap-screws
and trigger-guards and the tangs of the butt-
plates indicate, however, a transitional period
of shorter duration.
The chiselled decoration of the garniture
expresses the same delight in life as that on the
Livrustkammare gun with scenes from the
legend of Hercules. The cartouches are still
decidedly Baroque and invite comparison with
64
Dutch pilaster designs. A novel feature has
been introduced in the decoration: small, inlaid
silver roses. Those on the spiral section in front
of the sight greatly enhance the effect of this
part.
Definitely more classical in style is a pair of
pistols with figures of animals in the Wrangel
Armoury, Skokloster (No. 43. PL 38:3). Their
maker has found abundant opportunity to
make use of the silver roses just mentioned on
barrels and pommels. These latter are rather
like turbans in shape. This form may seem out
of place, but it is quite normal when compared
with the sulptural design of the pommels dealt
with in the following chapter. Steels and pans
are angular, the heads of the jaw-screws com-
pressed in the middle. The date is the decade
1640-50.
No. D 362 (PI. 39:1 and 41 13) in the Waffen-
sammlung, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna,
is a gun of which the large figured allegorical
reliefs are enclosed in a framework of leaves
and flowers. Among these we again find
encrusted silver roses. The part that used to be
spiral has become plain with roughly incised
surface ornamentation, the surface enlivened
with silver inlay. This gun is aesthetically the
most satisfactory piece amongst the earlier
ones in the group. The reliefs are carved with
unfailing elegance by a master at the height of
his skill. In contrast, the butt-plate is of rather
clumsy workmanship. The date, following the
principles adopted here, must be in the 1640-50
period, not later than 1650.
Of the same period and of the same character
is a garniture in the Wrangel Armoury,
Skokloster (Nos. 112, 67. PL 38:4). The butt
of the gun has been altered later. Within the
wreaths of leaves and flowers we find some of
the exuberance and liveliness of the motifs of
the Livrustkammare garniture. The design is,
however, superior. There is reason to believe
that this is due to the increasing skill of one and
the same master. This in itself is not impossible,
especially as the development moves in the
expected direction, that is, the transition from
Baroque to Classicism.
Last in the series of classical medallions with
floral decoration are those on a gun in the
Tojhus Museum in Copenhagen (Inv. No.
B661. PI. 39:2, 41:4, 42:3 and 43 :2) 13 . The
reliefs, lower than those just mentioned, are the
work of a very skilful master. The motifs
continue to be allegorical, female figures with
birds, cornucopiae and flaming hearts. The
trigger-guard of the gun is gradually curved
with the fore-end turned in and the rear-end
closely following the small of the butt. The
latter has only a slight trace of its previous
angularity. With this gun we have definitely
reached the period about 1650.
The guns in the relief decorated group have
round fore-sights. There is not always a back-
sight. On the earlier weapons this is usually
formed by a dove-tailed piece of iron in which
a wide V sight is cut. This is the case with
No. B 660 of the Tojhus Museum, the gun in
Kranichstein and No. 1545 of the Livrust-
kammare. The Skokloster gun with the elong-
ated reliefs (Wrangel No. 250) and one of the
guns in Venice (No. M 14) have the usual
sight with a foot. On the gun of the Livrust-
kammare garniture (No. 1278) the sight is
formed by the upper edge of a cartouche which
has been opened up and given the requisite
shape. On the first gun with classical medal-
lions, that in Vienna (No. D 362), this kind of
sight has been replaced by two small wings
placed on a circular moulding above the top
medallion (cf. PL 41:3). The gun of the
Skokloster garniture (Wrangel No. 112) has
the same wings but on a slightly larger scale
and with a somewhat sharper angle between
them. The last group, No. B 661 of the Tojhus
Museum, shows the same tendency but the
sight has become heart shaped (cf. PI. 41 -.4).
With this series of sights, whose form is deter-
mined by the need to shoot flying birds, we
have been able to check the correctness of the
order of date in which the weapons have been
arranged.
After these arms it is time to turn to one of
Charles XI's guns in the Livrustkammare (Inv.
No. 1333. PI. 39:3, 5). It is described in the
guide of 1 92 1 as French of the middle of the
seventeenth century 14 . There is nothing against
this attribution. It is confirmed by the form of
the butt, by the trigger-guard with its forked
Mid seventeenth century flintlock arms
fore- end and by the head of the jaw-screw com-
pressed in the middle. The lock forms half-
cock by a sear moving horizontally through the
plate and resting against the belly of the cock.
The full-cock is formed by means of a pro-
jection on the tumbler. It is true that the barrel
has no reliefs and no cartouches, but its
chamber is ornamented in exactly the same
manner as the part of the barrel above the
medallions on the Skokloster garniture and
No. B 661 of the Tojhus Museum. Furthermore
it has the French coat of arms underneath the
crown of the princes of the blood royal in the
middle of the barrel (PI. 43 :6). The cock is
designed as a dolphin.
It is worthy of mention that there was a gun
(Inv. No. 145)" in the French Cabinet d'Armes
exacdy like that of the Livrustkammare except
that the coats of arms of France and Navarre
were engraved on the studded silver plaque of
the butt. On the Livrustkammare gun this is
vacant. As the French king's gun is also
included in the inventory of 1729, the Livrust-
kammare one and it cannot be identical.
The manufacture of flintlock arms with
chiselled ornament appears to have begun in
the 1 630s, to have had its main output in the
1640s and, for the most part, to have terminated
in the 1650s. In 1930 there was a lock for sale
on the Stockholm art market, with a com-
pressed, pear shaped jaw-screw head and
rounded forms. On the lock-plate was a
representation of an equestrian battle. In many
respects it resembled the group with which we
shall now deal. This lock represents the later
form of the type and is interesting as an example
of the appearance of the pear shaped jaw-screw
head in the 1650-60 period.
A pair of pistols in the Wrangel Armoury at
Skokloster (No. 46. PI. 44:1, 46:1 and 47:5)
introduces the small figured group. The motif
in the only cartouche on the barrels, two horse-
men and a warrior in armour bearing a standard
against the background of a castle on high
mountains, has a definite connection with the
barrel decoration on the Vienna gun mentioned
above (cf. PI. 47:5 and 40:3). The cartouche
has, however, become a medallion and the
relief is more elegant and not so high. The
65
Flintlock
flat cock is quite different from those formed
of monsters and fantastic beings with which
we have hitherto been dealing. It shows a dis-
tinct affinity with the type represented by the
Parisian Pierre Thomas's firearms of the 1640s,
i.e. with the earlier, undoubtedly French type
of lock with flat face. In spite of this the lock
is not the same. The upper jaw moves with a
projection in the groove of the spur. This is
usual in the sub-group with the few figures in
high relief. The jaw-screw head is pear shaped.
This form is only found along with the plum
shaped jaw-screw heads of the 1630s and 1640s
and that of the 1660s which is compressed at
the top and with a turned cavity below. The
steel is rounded and the rear-end of the lock-
plate is very much widened and provided with
a projecting tongue. The rounded steel and the
pans are universal in the sub-group with
numerous figures chiselled in low relief. The
size of the group is not large, totalling seven
flintlock weapons and a pair of wheel-lock
pistols, so that it hardly justifies far-reaching
conclusions. The consequences within the
group are, however, of importance. The butts
of the pistols are flatter than before and larger
in contour when viewed from the side. The
pommels, which on the Skokloster set are
directly attached to the butt, and on the Liv-
rustkammare set fixed with very short spurs on
the sides, have in the case of the former pair
longer spurs and their inner profile curved.
This characteristic is also general. Then again
they are decorated with equestrian figures
within a laurel wreath and with groups of
trophies. The trigger-guards are, as on the
Thomas garniture, forked in front and gently
curved.
One of the novel features on this pair of
pistols and one of the most important is the
nature of the chiselled ornament on the lock-
plate. This is a military scene with a horseman
charging at the gallop in front of a camp.
Something similar is to be found on a pair of
pistols which at one time were in the collection
of Count G. A. F. V. von Essen at Wijk in the
province of Uppland. It is now in the possession
of Baron Carl von Essen at Sabylund in the
province of Narke (PL 44:2, 48 :z, 4). Unfortun-
66
ately the stocks look later and the side-plates
are some ten years later than the barrels, lock
and mounts. The external steel-spring with its
long upper, short lower arms is of the same
kind as the definitely French steel-springs of
the 1 640s. All the rest conforms with the pair
of pistols at Skokloster just mentioned and is
even slighdy more advanced. An attribution
to the 1 65 os is therefore acceptable. Con-
formity with the definitely French examples is
closer in detail, viz. the design of the upper
jaw with two arms which slide on either side
of the cock-spur. Later dating is also denoted
by the screw-like ornament in the empty space
at the forked fore-end of the trigger-guard.
Another reason for this dating is the scene
(cf. PL 48:4) on one of the pommels repre-
senting a horseman whose steed is led by
Hercules and Minerva, while Fama, the god-
dess of rumour, blows her trumpet and a
flying genius is in the act of crowning the
horseman with a laurel wreath. The rider, by
reason of his sceptre decorated with fleurs-de-lis,
can be identified as Louis XIV, King of France.
He is represented as an adult, thus giving us
reason to date the pistol from the latter half of
the 165 os.
The next example of this group is decorated
in a very costly manner and is also of interest
by reason of its allusions to the French king.
It is a gun in the Jakobsson collection (PL
45:1, 3, 46:3 and 47:2). It belonged to the
armoury of the Grand Dukes of Saxony in
Ettersburg Casde until 1927 when it was sold
by auction. In the auction catalogue it was
described as probably being southern German
of about 1680 16 . It appeared again in an auction
catalogue in 1932 and was then regarded as
French about 1650". The barrel with decoration
in relief is strongly classical, it is embellished
with a group of figures with a horseman
accompanied by two others carrying banners.
The back-sight deserves special notice. It is
of the same heart shaped type as on the later
weapons in the sub-group with large figures
(Vienna, Skokloster and Copenhagen). It is
elongated, however, and consequendy is one
of the details which lead us to place the sub-
group, to which it belongs, in the chain of
development after the one with large figures.
The Ettersburg gun is a magnificent specimen.
The left side of the butt is richly inlaid with
silver and engraved mother-of-pearl in a maze
of arabesques, flowers and exotic birds. The
right side is entirely covered by a skilfully
carved relief in which warriors in antique
armour are engaged in a wild melee. There is a
Latin inscription below this relief:
'Scipio, cui magnum dives dedit Affrica
nomen
pugnant em ad Trebia litus mane patrem
eximit ingenti pressum discrimine belli
jam puer et tuta sub statione locat.'
There is also the signature 'Johan Eberhard
Somer'. The translation of the Latin text is as
follows: 'Scipio to whom rich Africa gave a
great name gives already as a boy safe shelter
to his father fighting on the banks of the Trebia
and removes him from the fearful dangers of
the oppressive war'. This inscription contains
allusions to French history in the middle of the
seventeenth century, the outbreak of war with
Spain in 1635 and the very precarious situation
during the immediately succeeding years. Then
the brilliant victories during the boyhood of
Louis XIV; Rocroi 1643, Gravelines 1644,
Courtrai and Dunkirk 1646, Lens 1648 and
finally the Battle of the Dunes 1658. This is the
period to which one would wish to date the
barrel, lock and trigger-guard of the gun 18 . The
stock, especially the butt, is, however, old
fashioned. There is no avoiding this dating of
the weapon as a whole, even if we take into
account the existence of the gun with a Dutch
inscription and the year 1646 on the barrel
which was sold by auction at Sotheby's in
London on 2 July 1936 19 . The contour of the
butt of this gun dated 1646 resembles that of
the one at issue. The engraved horn inlay of
the stock is very like that of the mother-of-
pearl inlays just mentioned although they are
more stylized. The lock and the trigger-guard
on the 1646 gun are, however, of the type one
would expect at this date. The lock of the
Ettersburg gun on the other hand corresponds
to other locks which must be dated for various
reasons to the 1650-60 period. The general
Mid seventeenth century flintlock arms
impression one obtains of flintlock weapons
dating from this period, shortly before the
introduction of the classical Louis XIV style,
is a confusing variety in which the group with
relief ornament represents but one phase. As to
the gun butts they will in this case have to be
considered as subject to time-lag.
We avoid this dilemma of dating the sub-
group with the small figures by reference to a
pair of pistols in the Livrustkammare (Inv.
Nos. 4813, 4814. PL 44:3, 46:2, 47:3, 4 and
48 : 5 , 6, 7). The length of the spurs of the pom-
mels and the pear shape of the jaw-screw heads
favour a date from the 1650-60 period. A
horseman rides at the gallop, receiving an
ovation from soldiers, on the lock-plate of
one of the pistols. On the head of the cock-
screws there is a picture of a youthful man in
the long, curly hair (wig?) and the wide
hanging cape in which Louis XIV is depicted
at that very time. It is in fact very probably he
who is represented, as also on the barrel of
one of the pistols where a crowned prince
offers, with an inviting gesture, the crown and
sceptre to a lady carrying a fan on the other
barrel. Both personages are seen against city
walls lined with spectators. The marriage of
Louis XIV and the Spanish Maria Theresa
took place in 1660.
It is perhaps unnecessary to enter into details
regarding the barrels belonging to the group.
They are to be seen in the Musee d'Armes,
Liege, the Musee de la Porte de Hal, Brussels,
and the Victoria and Albert Museum in
London. Nor need we discuss the wheel-lock
pistols with hunting motifs in the Livrust-
kammare (Inv. Nos. 1762, 1763). This material
has nothing very new to offer. The two guns
in the Schwarzburg Zeughaus (Nos. 1002,
1007) referred to at the beginning of this
chapter deserve some further attention as their
existence implies a continuation of the large
figured group. The earlier of these, No. 1007,
has locks with flat forms, but rounded steel
and pan, steel-spring with a long upper and
short lower arm, heads of monsters on the rear
of the lock-plate, and a cock irregular to the
extent that its upper jaw slides with a recess
on the spur of the cock. The head of the
67
Flintlock
jaw-screw is round. The cartouches of the barrel
depict St George and the Dragon and also a
gentleman and lady. The former has the same
large wig and the same cape just mentioned.
The near end of the trigger-guard is decidedly
round with the belly on the underside of the
butt pushed far back. It can, broadly speaking,
be dated to the decade 1650-60. The second gun
at Schwarzburg (No. 1002. PI. 45 14 and 47:1)
should be dated later. The reliefs of the car-
touches are mostly composed of small figures,
the butt is entirely rounded off and the belly
of the underside missing so that it looks tri-
angular from the side. The trigger-guard is
divided at the near end and the lock-plate is
quite convex. The jaw-screw head is in the
form of a truncated cone with an angular ring
at the foot. The cock is so bent that its neck is
almost horizontal.
Apart from the importance of this gun in
judging the forms of flintiock firearms immedi-
ately preceding the 1660s it also throws
valuable light on the source of the relief
decoration group as a whole inasmuch as the
lock-plate bears the engraved inscription 'A
Sedan'. The barrel is signed in front of the
chamber with the initials '1 r'. This brings us
up against the problem of the manufacturing
area of this group, a problem which will be
difficult to solve and cannot be finally solved
until irrefutable evidence has been found in the
archives. That such a gun was completed in
Sedan is an important piece of information. It
is supported by the same signature on the
pistol lock mentioned above, that privately
owned in Sweden, belonging to a barrel
decorated in relief of the same kind although of
coarser workmanship. With both these weapons
we have definite proof of France as the source
of at least part of the group, though only for a
border town. The signature '1 p' on the lock
of the gun presented by Drakenhjelm of the
Cameral Board to Charles XI and now in the
Livrustkammare (PL 43:5) does not help us
much. All the weapons belonging to the group
are unsigned, but several of them have marks,
all stamped beneath the barrels. None of these
marks have been deciphered so that in this
case we must deal with probabilities.
68
A few of the barrels decorated with longi-
tudinal reliefs are stamped with a flagon, the
Tojhus Museum gun No. B 660 20 , the barrel
mounted by Jonas Schertiger Jr. in the Livrust-
kammare, the gun presented by Charles Gus-
tavus Wrangel to Charles X Gustavus in the
same institution and Queen Kristina's pistols
there, Inv. Nos. 1612, 1613 21 . Samuel Doepfer
(Topfer), barrel and locksmith, who was
granted burghership in Strasbourg in 1658 and
died in 1681 22 , used a flagon and the initials
*s. d.' in his mark. A flintlock musket in the
Musee Curtius, Liege, dated 1635, which is
probably Dutch, also has a mark with a flagon
on the barrel. The evidence is too meagre and
too uncertain to permit any conclusions to be
drawn. Nor can it be proved at this stage that
the five pointed star under the pistols No. 43
(PI. 38:3) in the Wrangel Armoury at Skok-
loster can be identified as the five pointed star
in the arms of the town of Maastricht, though
it may be possible and indeed probable that
this is the case. As a matter of fact the barrel
of the gun, Inv. No. 1333 in the Livrustkam-
mare, is stamped with an oval mark with the
letters '1 p' beneath a crown 23 . We find our-
selves on safer ground with the mark contain-
ing the letters '1 r' separated by a crowned
star or flower 24 . It is struck under the barrels
of the already mentioned pistols from the Wijk
Collection belonging to the group with small
figures. The same mark is known, among
others, on three pairs of pistols with ivory
stocks; a pair in the Livrustkammare (Inv. Nos.
5 757, 575 8), signed by Jakob Kosters of
Maastricht, a pair in the Hallwyl Museum,
Stockholm (Inv. No. A 16. PI. 52:4)", signed
by Johan Louroux, also of Maastricht, and a
pair in the Livrustkammare signed by Vivier
de Sedan. It is not known where Vivier worked.
All three signatures can be read on the locks.
The barrels of the last mentioned pair are
signed 'Lazarino Cominazzo', a signature which
does not in this case seem convincing.
The two wheel-lock pistols with hunting
motifs in the Livrustkammare (Inv. Nos. 1762,
1763) have a very characteristic mark 26 of a
type which always contains a sign in the form
of a horseshoe and three letters. The first of
Plate 57.
France, Paris.
c. 1660.
Gun by Thuraine and Le Hollandois of Paris ; Copenhagen,
Tojhusmuseet B 663.
Plate 58.
France, Paris.
c. 1660.
Gun by 'Le Couvreux au Palais Royal'; belonged to
Nicolas Nicolay, Marquis de Goussainville, d. 1686; Paris,
Musee de l'Armee M. 588.
r
Plate 59.
France, Paris.
Early 1660s.
Louis XIV's Wender gun by Le Conte of Paris. Inlaid
decoration of the stock signed 'Berain fecit'. Gift to Charles
XI 1673; Stockholm, Livrustkammaren 3888.
Plate 60.
France, Paris.
Early 1660s.
Details of gun on PL 59.
Plate 61.
France, Angers and
Paris.
1-5. Pistol, one of a pair, by Monlong of Angers; Schwarz-
burg 1288. 6. Louis XIV' s gun by De Foullois le jeune of
Paris, c. 1665 ; Pauilhac Collection, Paris.
Plate 62.
Netherlands, Utrecht and
Heidelberg,
Germany. 1650-60S.
1. Gun with Utrecht mark on the barrel. 2. Gun by Jan
Knoop of Utrecht. 3 and 4. Gun by same master, 2 and 3
belonged to Ove Bielcke of 0straat, Chancellor of Norway
(b. 161 1, d. 1674); Copenhagen, Tojhusmuseet B 608,
B 602 and B 603. 5. Section of lock of gun by 'David Rene
a Heydelberg'; Skokloster, Wrangel Armoury 100.
Plate 63.
Italy, Brescia.
i66os(?)
1 and 5. Charles XI's gun, barrel signed 'Vinsenso Lanse'.
2-4. Charles XI's pistols by Paolo Francesse of Brescia,
barrels by La2ano Lazarino Cominazzo ; Stockholm, Livrust-
kammaren 1335.
Plate 64.
England, London
Wootton Basset.
1650-60S.
and
1. Pistol, one of a pair, by William Parket of London.
2 and 3. Pistol, one of a pair, by same master; Skokloster,
Wrangel Armoury No. 93 and Brahe-Bielke Armoury. 4.
Breech loading pistol, one of a pair by Harman Barne of
London. 5 and 6. Pistol, one of a pair, signed 'R. Hewse of
Wootton Basset'; Copenhagen, Tojhusmuseet B 1019.
Plate 65.
France, Paris.
1. Double barrelled pistol, one of a pair, by Du Bois of Paris;
Skokloster, Wrangel Armoury 49. 2-4. Pistol by De Foullois
of Paris; Stockholm, Livrustkammaren (Saxon Armoury).
Plate 66.
France, Paris.
i. Gun by Des Granges of Paris, ordered by Erik Dahlberg
in 1668 for Svante Baner, King's Councillor; Sturefors,
Bielke Gun Armoury No. 40. 2-5 . Pistol, one of a pair by
same master, ordered in Paris in 1668 by a Baron Gyllen-
stierna of Ulaborg; Stockholm, Livrustkammaren 1637.
Plate 67.
p-
^
France, Paris.
1650-70.
1 and 4. Gun by Deverre of Paris, Skokloster, Wrangel
Armoury 116. 2 and 3. Pistol, one of a pair, by Cuny
and Lahitte of Paris. Skokloster, Brahe-Bielke Armoury.
Plate 68.
#' **
,*^
France, Paris.
i and 2. Details of the pistol on PL 66:2. 3, 4 and 5. Butt-
caps of pistols on PI. 65:2, 67:2, 69:2. 6 and 7. Side plates
of gun and pistol on PL 67:1 and 2.
these is nearly always an V, the last usually an
V and the middle one varying. Together with
the initial V and a double eagle under a five
pointed star (Jan Kitzen of Maastricht) this
type of mark occurs with the letters 'm a l' on
several simple horseman's pistols in the Emden
Zeughaus (Nos. 1321-1324) 27 . A 'm i l'
mark is on at least one of the barrels of a
Wender of not later than 1660, signed Leonard
Cleuter in the Wrangel Armoury at Skokloster
(No. 113). It is also on a wheel-lock pistol by
Arnold David of Liege in the Tojhus Museum,
Copenhagen (No. B 654), and on a pair of
flintlock pistols by Abraham Meunier of
Geneva in the same museum (Nos. B 684,
B 685). There are further examples of Nether-
lands arms with marks of this type, but what
has been said should suffice to show where to
seek the place in which this type of mark was
used. Beneath the barrels of the Livrustkam-
mare pistols Nos. 4813, 4814 (PL 44:3), are
stamped the letters 'Colas' 28 , the name of a
gun-making family with members resident in
Sedan 29 .
With these marks as evidence we might be
inclined to regard the group with relief decora-
tion as of Low Countries origin, or belonging
to the border districts between France and the
Netherlands. It is indeed likely that this is the
case, but just as likely that the area of manu-
facture was larger and extended southwards.
All the marks mentioned above denote gun-
smiths. When we remember that barrels were
often articles of commerce, bought, finished
off, and assembled in other places, the fact that
the stamps are largely associated with Maast-
richt does not prevent the weapons having
been finished in other places. There are further
reasons for assuming that the type was also
manufactured on French territory.
The chamber of M. Pauilhac's pistol (PI.
28:3) signed by Montaigu of Metz is decorated
in the same technique as the Bourbon gun in
the Livrustkammare (PI. 43:5). This widens
the frontiers for the type of decoration. If we
examine the Dauphin gun in Berlin (PI. 19:3,4),
we shall find that the ornament of the barrel
and the butt-plate is very closely related
to the relief decoration of the flindock weapons.
Mid seventeenth century flintlock arms
The strongest reason for regarding the group
with relief decoration as French is to be found
in Marcou's pattern album. This work gives
several examples of such relief work, which
we recognize from the earlier group with large
figures and with cocks designed as monsters
or fantastic creatures. In this album too we find
the elements which compose the decoration on
the lock of Livrustkammare gun No. 1297.
The steel chisellers who decorated firearms
also designed sword guards. The Livrustkam-
mare has a sword (Inv. No. 5817:1. PL 49:1, 4)
whose reliefs show exactly the same motifs as
the lock on the gun Inv. No. 1545 (PL 37:6) in
the same museum. It belongs to the earlier
group with a few large figures. To the later
group belong two swords in the Livrustkam-
mare (Inv. No. 3869. PL 49:2, 3, 5 and No.
3870) 30 . They were purchased in Paris in 1654
by Pierre Bidal for Charles X Gustavus's
impending coronation. The guards are of silver
so that we can assume that they were cast.
As these can be proved to have come from
Paris this provides a further reason for regard-
ing the group of firearms with relief decoration
as French.
If we now sum up our conclusions concern-
ing firearms with relief ornamentation, the
result will be as follows: with dated examples
from the 1630s as a guide we can assign the
earliest to this decade. Two parallel groups are
attributed to the period from, let us say, the
close of the 1630s onwards. The rare group
with longitudinal reliefs on the barrels and
locks in which, as a rule, a monkey, a lion and a
dragon play prominent parts in the decoration,
come to an end in the period around 1650. The
other with the figures or groups of figures —
usually a few figures in comparatively high
relief — is framed in Baroque cartouches. In
the later weapons these were transformed into
oval medallions and continue into the 1650s.
The motifs are as a rule taken from contem-
porary emblematic or allegorical subjects. In
both groups the cocks are generally designed
as grotesque monsters or fantastic creatures.
Finally, there is a group with low reliefs of the
1 65 os. They chiefly have martial motifs and
may be regarded as taken from French political
69
Flintlock
history with distinct relevance to the king
himself. The Netherlands and France must be
considered as the areas where the type was
made.
For one of the aims of this thesis — to be able
to date west European flindock firearms by
their form — those with relief ornamentation
make quite a number of contributions. The
barrels of the 1630s are generally longer than
those of the middle of the century. The earliest
forms of the ring back-sight have been men-
tioned already, as has the occurrence of the
constricted jaw-screw head during the 1640s
and the pear shaped jaw-screw head of the
1 65 os. Our information concerning the devel-
opment of the trigger-guard and steel-spring
placed on the outside of the lock-plate has
received significant additions. We have also
seen that the finish of the rear of the lock-plate
becomes blunt and broad with a short tongue.
The tendency to fill up the empty triangle
caused by dividing the near-end of the trigger-
guard is another new feature. The transforma-
tion of the gun butt from angular and curved
to rounded off and triangular in profile can be
followed in the group with relief decoration, as
also the transition of the pistol butts to a com-
pressed and broadened form. Then again the
origin and initial development of the spurs of
the pistol pommels during the 1640s and 1650s.
Flat locks and convex locks appear simultane-
ously as early as the 1630s. About the middle
of the seventeenth century a distinctly higher
percentage of convex locks can be observed.
On one gun, No. 1298 in the Livrustkammare,
which belongs to a garniture of the middle
group dating from the 1640s, we find the
precursors of the side-plate, screw-washers of
iron, adorned with heads of monsters facing
one another. In the gun No. 1002 of the
Schwarzburg Zeughaus, made at Sedan towards
1660, we have an interesting example of the
later development from the large figured group
and a starting point for further discussion.
The interest in relief decoration of which the
group dealt with in this chapter is evidence,
can also be recognized in a pair of pistols with
plain barrels but richly carved butts. They are
preserved in the Wallace Collection (Inv. Nos.
V: 916, 917. PL 50) 32 . Unfortunately these
pistols are not signed.
In the high relief carving of the stocks we
see Hercules killing the lion and Samson
slaying the Philistines with the ass's cheekbone.
Draped lion skins adorn the front of the stocks.
On one of the locks the killing of the lion is
repeated, on the other Hercules flays his victim.
The entire course of events is described in gold
inlay on the barrels right up to the proud
moment when Hercules, leaning on his club,
wears the lion's skin as a trophy. The demi-
god, who is usually represented as a bearded
man, is here a youth with the French royal
crown suspended above his head. Moreover
fleurs-de-lis are strewn on the blued barrels.
These allusions, otherwise not particularly
difficult to interpret, are explained in the
inscription on the barrels. According to this
Louis bears the Belgian emblem (the lion) just
as Hercules wore the skin of the vanquished
lion 32 .
Louis XIV, for whom the pistols therefore
were made, had neither reason nor occasion to
bedeck himself with the skin of the Belgian
lion before the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659,
or if we choose, before the Battle of the
Dunkirk Dunes the previous year. We must
probably assume that the expression of homage
which these pistols imply was conveyed while
the motive was fresh and opportune. This will
give us the dating. To anyone who dates still
more advanced forms to the 1650s certain
details in these pistols will be strikingly old
fashioned. These include the absence of the
side-plates and the very simple trigger-guards
reminiscent of the Wender group. The raised
narrow plaques on the underside are reminis-
cent of the corresponding ones on Netherlands
trigger-guards. The design of the barrels, the
octagonal chamber, more than one third of
which is polygonal, are as we expect them to
be: so also the lock-plate which is practically
flat but rounded at the rear with rather a long
projecting point and a distinct demarcation
between the flat and the rounded part. Then
there are the rounded cocks with hints of
volutes and convex steels and pans. The jaw-
screws are high and narrow, terminating in
7°
broad and round forms with a groove at the
top. The upper jaw slides in the groove of the
jaw-screw.
The medallion plates on the trigger-guards
indicate that the place of manufacture of these
pistols should be sought in the north of France.
In their lock design with rounded clocks, steels
and rear points of the lock-plate they conform
to the purely French weapons dealt with in
the following chapters.
Editor's Note
* This is not convincing, as there is evidence
that Marcou's pattern book circulated out-
side France and was used there.
Notes to Chapter Six
i. De Lucia, La Sala d'armi. P. 94.
2. Ossbahr, Das furstliche Zeughaus in Schwart^-
burg. P. 97. No. 1002.
3. Ibid. P. 99. No. 1007.
4. Smith, Det kongelige partikulaereRustkammer,
I. Pp. 47, 50. Nos. 90, 102. PI. 23, 24.
5. Livrustkammarinventarium 168}. P. 60. Nos.
26, 27. Palace Archives.
6. Inventar iiber die in der Grossher\oglichen
Gewhrkammer befindlichen Waffen und son-
stigen Gegenstdnde. P. 14. Communicated by
Baron Georg W. Fleetwood.
7. Communicated by Baron Rudolf Ceder-
strom.
8. There is another lock (No. N 1 1) in the
Armeria Reale, Turin, and in private
ownership in Stockholm still another. The
mounting of the one in Turin differs,
however, from those mentioned here.
Cf. Angelucci, Catalogo delta Armeria Rea/e.
Pp. 45 2.45 3-
9. Livrustkammarinventarium 1683. P. 60. No.
26. Palace Archives. Livrustkammaren
Vagledning 1922. P. 54. No. 379.
10. Livrustkammaren Vagledning 19 21. P. 54.
No. 378.
11. Ibid. P. 54. No. 377. P. 60. No. 471.
12. Livrustkammarinventarium 1683. P. 60. No.
27. P. 53. No. 4. Palace Archives.
13. Smith, Det kongelige parti kulaere Rust-
kammer. I. P. 47. No. 90. PI. 23, 24. 'Ca.
1655. French (?)'.
Mid seventeenth century flintlock arms
14. Gift to Charles XI from 'Blessed Draken-
hjelm', probably Boos, member of the
Cameral Board, ennobled Drakenhjelm (b.
1624, d. 1676). Livrustkammaren. Vag-
ledning 1921. P. 87. No. 703. Livrustkam-
marinventarier 1683. (Zacharias Renberg's
inventarium 1686.) P. 256. No. 11. Palace
Archives.
1 5 . Guiffrey, Inventaire general du mobilier de la
couronne. T. II. P. 61. Un beau fuzil de
5 pieds, le canon fonds couleur d'eau, les
armes de France couronnees dans le milieu
dans un ornement dore, la culasse enrichie
de petittes roses et pointes de diamans
d'argent, la platine cizelee d'un dragon et le
chien d'un dauphin; le bois de poirier, dont
la crosse est tailee a jour, representatant
une Sirenne au devant de laquelle sont
gravees les armes de France et de Navarre
sur une petitte plaque d'argent.
16. [Binder], Grossher^oglich sdchsische Gewehr-
sammlung Schloss Ettersburg. P. 9. No. 51.
17. Catalogue of a choice collection of swords,
firearms . . . etc. The property of Major Th.
Jacobsson of Stockholm. Pp. 4, 5. No. 10.
1 8. A stock maker Eberhard Sommer is known
in Kunzelsau am Kocher (Wiirtemberg) at
the time in question so that my argument
in so far as it refers to French political
history hardly applies. As Kunzelsau is
situated near the district to which I have
assigned the group with ornament in relief,
the conclusion will be that the district is
somewhat larger and also comprises a part
of Germany. [Postscript by Lenk to his
personal copy.]
19. Catalogue of valuable armour and weapons . . .
which will be sold by auction by Messrs.
Sotheby & Co. . . . znd of July, 1936. P. 13.
No. 89. III. On separate plate.
20. Smith, Det kongelige partikulaere Rust-
kammer. P. 50.
21. Livrustkammaren. Vagledning 1921. P. 14.
Mark No. 263.
22. Stockel, Haandskydevaabens Bedommelse. I.
P. 76.
*3-
* 3
71
Flintlock
25. [Claudelin], Katalog over vapensamlingen i
Hallwylsk-a musset, Stockholm. P. 69.
26.
27. Potier, Inventar der Riistkammer der Stadt
Emden. Pp. 82, 83.
Some of this data has been taken from
Captain J. StockePs rich collection of marks.
'One silver sword and appendant gilded
spurs with scabbard.'
28.
30
'One ditto with spurs and with scabbards.'
Wardrobe Account. 1654. P. 114. Palace
Archives.
31. Laking, Catalogue of the European Armour
and Arms in the Wallace Collection at
Hertford House. P. 251.
32. Belgicus ecce leo gallorum subactus
Gerionae hispano trista fata parat
Sunt nobis lilia cordi.
Ut pellam (Alcides) devicti insigni leonis
Sic Ludovicus ouans [sic!] belgica signa
gerit
Sunt nobis lilia cordi.
7 2
CHAPTER SEVEN
Pistol butt- caps and pommels during
the earlier half of the seventeenth
century. Ivory stocked pistols
IT has been shown in the preceding chapters
that the oval, convex pistol butt-caps
developed a spur or tail on each side prior
to 1650 and that these spurs subsequently grew
in length and are of great help in dating. This
kind of butt terminal is, however, only one of
several. A closer study of pommels and butt-
caps furnishes valuable data for our further
investigation.
Two main types of pommels have to be
considered at the beginning of the seventeenth
century. One is merely an extension of the
butt, the other consists of a plum shaped ball
distinctly separated from the small of the butt,
a successor to the heavy 'Afterkugel' (ball-
butt) of the sixteenth century pistols. The end
of the former type is often reinforced with a
metal ring round the edge. Italian pistols and
guns of the earlier half of the seventeenth
century have butts of this type with the end
covered with a delicately pierced ornamental
metal plate over the entire surface. In western
Europe a convex plate of some other material
is usually laid on the flat butt. It may be of
wood, horn, bone or of metal, usually iron,
which then merges into the ring and then into
a long slender oval butt. It is sometimes
attached with a screw passing through a hole
in the middle, sometimes with a round headed
screw pierced laterally for the insertion of a
rod for unscrewing (cf. PI. 27 :i). It is still found
in France in the 1650s, when it was fluted from
the edge towards the centre and secured by a
screw with a tall head (cf. PI. 26:1, 2). The same
kind of butt-caps, though without such screws,
occur on butts which are plump and round in
profile and resemble those on the relief
decorated group with small figures. They are
to be found in a pattern book with engravings
by C. Jacquinet after designs by Thuraine and
Le Hollandois dating from about 1660. These
will be dealt with below. Of the various types
the Wender group has the flattest and roundest
pommels. One of the engravings just men-
tioned (PL 115 :z) shows a butt-cap with a spur
slightly longer than the breadth of the cap seen
from the side. This pommel is made as to one
half like a ball without a spur; this half is
narrower than the other half. This might be
regarded as accidental if the existing specimens
73
Flintlock
did not show the same difference between the
two types of pommel. Pistols that have butt-
caps with spurs of the same length as those on
Jacquinet's and Berain's engravings (cf. PL
117:2) should, by virtue of this pattern book,
be attributed to the period 1650-60. This
applies, for example, to the group of pistols
with small chiselled figure decoration in the
Livrustkammare Inv. Nos. 1629, 1630 signed
'Gilbin a Paris' (PL 54:2) and the Tojhus
Museum Nos. B 918, B 919 with ivory stocks
signed on the locks by De la Pierre of
Maastricht (PL 53:1).
When the spurs become long enough they
hold the cap in its position on the butt, but the
actual fixture is usually effected by means of a
peg which enters the butt from the middle and
is fastened by a pin or is simply driven into the
wood like a spike. This peg, which supplants
the screw, has a large head which may assume
quite a number of profiles or be chiselled or
engraved. There are examples in Jacquinet's
engravings of Thuraine and Le Hollandois's
designs and on all three pommels in Berain's
pattern plates.
The engraved pattern sheets provide evi-
dence for the typology of pommels and caps
as follows: Thomas Picquot 1638 (cf. p. 129) a
sheet with two patterns for pommels 'pour le
bout d'un pommeau' (without spurs) ; Marcou
1657 (cf. p. 135) a butt-cap with pronounced
relief and short spurs (cf. PL 113:1), hence
dating from the period round about 1650;
Jacquinet after Thuraine et Le Hollandois
four pommels, which are very rounded in
profile, one without spurs, two and a half with
a recess in the side for decoration of the pommel
in relief or for an inlaid engraved metal plaque,
and a further half with a spur of medium length.
Berain illustrates three pommels representing
three stages in the evolution of the pommel
spur to slightly more than half length (cf.
PL 117). They give a good idea of how the
spurs developed through the 1650s.
As in all typological investigations this series
is only an aid and does not provide a definite
basis for dating. A pair of Frederick Ill's
(d. 1670) pistols at Rosenborg, Copenhagen
(Inv. Nos. 7-180, 7-184) have butt-caps with-
out spurs although they date from the close of
the 1660s. A pair of pistols in the Livrust-
kammare (Inv. Nos. 1699, 1700) which arrived
in Stockholm in 1673 and were made for
Charles XI, as is shown by his cypher and coat
of arms, have butt-caps with half-length spurs.
Both these pistols are signed by Des Granges of
Paris. The pommels of the last mentioned pair
are approximately round in profile though they
are actually at the same time compressed from
the side.
We return to the plum shaped pommels of
the beginning of the seventeenth century.
Some of the French pistols have, as do some
of the French and other pommels of the
sixteenth century, a pronounced ring, usually
of metal, at the joint between pommel and small
of the butt (cf. PL 13:2). There are also
examples of metal pommels attached to wooden
stocks (Berlin, Museum fur deutsche Geschichte
W 1 144, France the latter half of the sixteenth
century 1 , Tower of London XII: 922, 923,
France, first quarter of the seventeenth century).
Practically all the French pommels are angular
at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
There is evidence that these plum shaped pom-
mels were compressed at the small of the butt as
early as the 1610s and became pear shaped.
Examples are the Rosenborg wheel-lock pistols
mentioned above (Inv. Nos. 7-137, 7-147.
PL 51:1). They can be dated by comparison
with a gun in the Musee de l'Armee in Paris (Inv.
No. M 95), which is dated 1613 2 . The material
employed for pommels on these wooden stocks
was horn. The group with cast silver ramrod-
pipes and pommel mounts (PL 24:1) went still
further and made the compression nearer the
trigger-guard. Butt and pommel are angular.
This was probably a brief fashion. It is also
represented on the wheel-lock pistols dated
1628 of Wenzel Rotkirch, a Master of the royal
Danish household, in the Wrangel Armoury at
Skokloster (No. 27). They are not, however,
French. Their pommels with engraved silver
mounts are made in one piece with the stocks
and belong, therefore, to the first group
described above.
Pommels made in a separate piece and of a
different wood or other material were also
74
given sculptural treatment. It is uncertain when
this began. We have evidence in Picquot's
album of these sculptural pommels in western
Europe in the 1630s. We have seen how his
teacher Marin Le Bourgeoys excelled in the
designing of original gun-butts. The pupil may
be expected to have followed his master in this
respect. But all these sculptured, chased or cast
pommels may be regarded as variations of a
popular theme. They can be studied on the
Langon pistol in the Lowenburg (PI. 21 :io) or
on the pistols in the Malta armoury (Inv. Nos.
96, 98), both dating from the 1640s. These are
signed on the barrels and locks 'Mathieu
Desforests fecit a Paris' 3 , their pommels are
cast in silver in the form of combined lions'
masks and eagles' heads. To this can be added
the Devie pistols in Dresden (PL 21:8) with
their very expressive negro heads of high
quality, carved in ebony. These last are of
particular importance for our investigations.
The pistols 2-4 on PI. 24 have embossed
butt-pommels of thin silver plate. Their place
of manufacture has not yet been determined
but they belong to the northern French or
Netherlands cultural area and provide examples
of the sculptural treatment of pommels in a
different material from the rest of the stocks and
evidence that this was not an unusual feature
in the 1630s and 1640s. We find such pommels
in Metz on pistols by Montaigu (PL 28:3) in
the form of cast eagles' heads in silver, in
Sedan on pistols by Gourinal in the Livrust-
kammare (Nos. 1694, 1695), such as lions' heads
in wood and, in Zutphen, on pistols by van den
Sande (PL 30:1). Somewhat later, but still
dating from the middle of the century, is a pair
of very beautiful and richly ornamented pistols
in the Moscow armoury (No. 8252) with
pommels of silver. Their signature can most
probably be read as being 'Jan Ceule Utrecht' 4 .
The Wrangel Armoury at Skokloster con-
tains a pair of Northern French or Netherlands
flintlock pistols (No. 66. PL 51:3, 5) with iron
pommels chiselled in the form of upturned
boys' heads which are not without a certain
quality. Their closest relations are another pair
of earlier pistols from the Lamm collection at
Nasby, near Stockholm (Nos. 1090, 1091. PL
Pistol butt-caps and pommels
51:2), previously preserved at Akero, Sweden.
Their ivory pommels are in the form of
dragons' heads. The same material has also
been used for the laurel wreathed heads on the
pistol No. W 1 1 59 formerly in the Lowenburg
at Cassel (now missing), signed by Johan
Ortman of Essen (PL 5 1 14, 6). We now come
to a group which has attracted attention and
has hitherto been treated as an isolated phenom-
enon.* This is the pistols with ivory stocks.
They have long been highly appreciated by
collectors and connoisseurs and have been
published by Emil Ilgner in the Zeitschrift fur
historische Waff en- und Kostumkunde 5 . Ilgner
points out that a large number of the pistols
fitted with ivory stocks are signed by masters
resident in Maastricht and dates them from the
period round about 1700. Research in the
archives by A. Kessen following this dating
has not given the information hoped for 6 . His
research tends rather to support the redating
suggested here. The group should, namely, be
regarded as belonging rather to the earlier
pistols with pommels carved in a different
material from the rest of the stock. When ivory
became one of the most highly treasured de luxe
materials of the Baroque 7 , extant forms were
adopted for this new material. This accounts
for the manufacture of ivory stocks, princi-
pally in Maastricht. Ivory comes into use at
the same time in other places for firearms and
their accessories. We have, for example, Charles
XI's two de luxe guns of the mid seventeenth
century in the Livrustkammare (Inv. Nos.
1327, 1328) 8 , or the arms published by Stock-
lein with stocks by Hieronymus Borstorffer of
Munich for barrels and locks decorated by
Daniel Sadeler 9 , and, furthermore, pieces by
Johan Michael Maucher of Schwabisch Gmund,
later of Wurzburg 10 . The present book deals
only with the Maastricht manufacture.
A pair of pistols in the Wrangel Armoury at
Skokloster (No. 56. PL 51:7, 52:1), signed on
the lock-plate 'Louroux a Maestricht' (not
Johan Louroux as Ilgner states) affords several
points of comparison with the pieces discussed
above. The lock-plate is bellied — this applies
to the entire group — and is fairly wide behind
the cock, like the last of the groups with relief
75
Flintlock
decoration, and has an abrupt finish to the rear
with a short tongue. The cocks are carved in
pronounced relief and are, in a way, more in
keeping with the large figured group decorated
in relief than with the flat cocks of the small
figured group. But they have the high relief
typical of the latter on the cock-screw head and
the pear shaped head of the jaw-screw with a
slightly upturned outline towards the base. A
new feature to be noted is a carved leaf rising
from the neck of the cock and filling up part
of the space between the jaws. The back of the
^steel, too, is provided with a chiselled orna-
ment, the lower arm of the steel-spring is
carved with stylized leaves and the spur of the
steel is turned in a volute and decorated with a
row of pearls. The triangular gap made by
splitting the front end of the trigger-guard is
partly filled with a staff of pearls. We have
previously seen this feature on one of the Wijk
(Sweden) pistols with chiselled decoration (cf.
PI. 44:2). The barrels have octagonal chambers,
bordered by turned rings towards the muzzle,
and the muzzles reinforced with rings. Ivory
has been used for the entire stock. The pommels
(PI. 51:7) are carved from separate pieces of
ivory as helmeted warriors' heads bending
downwards and defined towards the small of
the butts by two black rings at the point where
the earlier pommels were joined to the stock.
Bold foliage ornament is carved in the ivory
round the tang of the barrel, behind the lock-
plate and at corresponding places on the left
side of the pistols. A slightly curved V shaped
design is formed on both sides where the
ramrods enter the fore-stock. The pistols have
only one ramrod-pipe each; it has slight turned
mouldings.
When dating these pistols we have to
consider the earlier examples from which they
develop. We find that they were manufactured
in the 1650s at the earliest. The pistols by 'De la
Pierre a Maastricht' in the Tojhus Museum,
Copenhagen (PI. 53:1, 6, 7) mentioned above
can serve as a guide in establishing the later
types. They belonged to King Christian V of
Denmark (Regent 1670-99), whose crowned
cypher is engraved on the side-plates. The
pommels of this pair of pistols are made in one
76
piece with the rest of the stocks and have caps
with half-length spurs. These, as mentioned
above, date them from the period about 1660.
They may have been acquired while Prince
Christian was visiting the Netherlands, Belgium,
England, and France in 1662-63. A comparison
with the Skokloster pistols just described shows
resemblances as well as differences. The locks
are convex in both cases, the plates broad
behind the cock and truncated. The cocks of
the De la Pierre pistols are considerably
simpler and attached by screws with smaller,
grooved heads. There are chiselled scroll
ornaments with pearls in both cases on cocks,
steels and the feet of the latter. The steel-springs
are divided by carved foliage ornaments. The
chamber of the barrel of the De la Pierre pistol
is divided into eight and sixteen sided sections.
The stocks have metal fore-ends and side-plate
of the kind we recognize from the Wender
group, and a coarser trigger-guard rounded off
and filled up on both sides of the fore-finger
rest. Christian V's pistols show the latest
possible date for the Louroux pistols at Skok-
loster to be the first years of the 1660s. As
these are more old fashioned than the Christian
V pistols they should be dated to the 1650-60
decade.
A pair of pistols in the Ilgner collection (PI.
52:2) should also be dated for the same reason
from the 1650s, probably towards the close.
They are signed by the same 'Louroux Maes-
tricht'. Their pommels are carved from the
same prototype as the Louroux pistols at
Skokloster. Barrels and stocks mostly corres-
pond, but the locks are simplified and a simple,
open-work side-plate has been let into the
stock. The most important difference is to be
seen, however, in the constricted rounded
forms of the trigger-guard. Here we see clearly
the origin of the type in the forked trigger-
guards. The ends of the trigger-guard are very
broad when seen in profile, but narrow when
seen in the longitudinal direction of the pistols.
This is so because the type originated from
filling up the divided ends of the earlier type
of trigger-guard.
We can compare this pair of pistols with a
pair by 'Jacob Kosters a Mastrich' in the
Plate 69.
iL>j
lAirj
fr^gfc 'jfl
1
1
France, Paris.
1669.
Gun 1, 3 and 5, and pistol, one of a pair, 2 and 4 garniture
by Thuraine of Paris. Owner's name Corfitz Trolle and
date 1669 on the gun; Copenhagen, Toihusmuseet B 664,
B665.
Plate 70.
France, "Paris.
c. 16 jo.
Charles XI's guns. 1. By De Foullois le jeune. 2. By Alex-
andre Masson, both of Paris. Gift by Louis XIV in 1673;
Stockholm, Livrustkammaren 1336 and 1339.
Plate 71.
France, Paris.
1673.
Charles XI's gun signed 'Piraube au gallerie a Paris'.
Given by Louis XIV in 1673 '■> Stockholm, Livrutskammaren
1337-
Plate 72.
France, Paris.
Charles XI's pistols by De Foullois le jeune of Paris.
Given by Louis XIV in 1673 > Stockholm, Livrustkammaren
163 1-2.
Tojhus Museum, Copenhagen (Inv. Nos. B 920,
B 921. PI. 52:3, 5) and again with the pistols
mentioned above by 'Johan Louroux Maes-
tricht' in the Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm
(Inv. No. 'A' 16. PI. 52:4, 6) 11 . We discover a
development characterized by simplified forms
of lock and trigger-guard, the introduction
of a rear ramrod-pipe and a more pronounced
profile in the ramrod pipes, the adoption of
side-plates which in the last mentioned pair
cover the entire part of the left side of the stock,
a change in the jaw-screws which are flattened
from above, a change in the lock-plate which
becomes narrower behind the cock and more
pointed, a return to the spur of the earlier steel
and the use of chambers with eight sided,
followed by sixteen sided sections. There is, on
the other hand, a progressive deterioration in
the quality of the ivory carving. This can be
the more easily verified as the pommels of all
these pistols go back to the same prototype.
With the Louroux pistols in the Hallwyl
Collection we have passed the De la Pierre
pistols in Copenhagen by ten years and have
reached about 1670 (cf. PI. 66-68). A pair of
pistols in the Rosenborg, Copenhagen (Inv.
Nos. 13-484, 13-485. PI. 53:2) signed 'De la
Haye a Maestricht' are, broadly speaking, of
the same period. Ordinary metal caps with
spurs extending right up to the lock supplant
the sculptural type of pommel. Where, in later
years, the thumb-plates were mounted, we find
on the smalls of the butts the monogram of the
Danish king Frederick IV (Regent 1 699-1 730)
in a shield under a royal crown. As Frederick
IV was born in 167 1 there is a possibility that
these may have been put there when the pistols
were supplied. This is by no means certain,
however, they are probably of more recent date.
Such plates were in frequent use in France
from the late 1660s.
Other pistols with ivory stocks can be dated
in accordance with this series. As Ilgner has
pointed out, there are also examples of other
designs of pommels, such as the Turk-heads
on a pair by De la Pierre at Skokloster (Wrangel
Armoury No. 8) 12 , laurelled heads of youths by
Jacob Kosters in the Livrustkammare (Inv.
Nos. 5657, 5658), etc.
Pistol butt-caps and pommels
The great majority of the ivory stocked
pistols whose place of manufacture can be
determined were made at Maastricht. The pair
reproduced by Ilgner from Veste Coburg (Inv.
Nos. V 71, V 72) should be regarded as an
offshoot of these 13 . They are signed 'La Marre a
Vienne'. This also applies to the two flintlock
pistols in Moscow (Inv. Nos. 83 11, 8312).
These Ilgner considers to have been made in
Russia by Russians in co-operation with
Netherlands gunsmiths 14 . They are purely Euro-
pean in form. The downward curve of the lock-
plate, in keeping with the wheel-locks, is
perhaps Dutch and the slender forms, in
keeping with mid seventeenth century and
earlier, justify their being regarded as the
earliest known pistols in west European style
with ivory stocks. Further investigation would
have to be made of these pistols and of the
Russian manufacture of firearms during the
seventeenth century to enable a more definite
opinion to be expressed. The Rose-Ilgner
hypothesis of the ivory pommels on the pistols
of Inv. 8306 in the Moscow armoury can be
rejected. According to it these pommels are
carved with portraits of Czar Peter the Great
and Catharine I 15 . In fact they resemble many
other ivory stocked pistols and can be dated
from the period round about 1660.
The evidence we have been able to acquire
concerning the ivory stocked pistols is consider-
able. At the same time as the group with small
figures were made and immediately after it,
that is in the 1650s, we have a group of convex
locks with very broad plates behind the cock
and with an abrupt finish, but with a narrower
and more pointed one as the 1660s advance.
The heads of the jaw-screws are pear shaped
right up to the years before 1660. After that
they become flattened on the top with turned
cavities underneath. The earlier cocks also have
a clumsy scrolled steel spur. Later they revert
to the older more slender type. The steel with
its leaf-spring and its edge broken with foliage
ornamentation must also be regarded as an
earlier form. A smooth steel-spring with turned
leaf-finial appears at the same time, and soon
becomes predominant. Parallel with this is the
forked trigger-guard rounded and finished off
77
Flintlock
with lobate leaves. Only the later firearms have
a rear ramrod-pipe and a side-plate. Some of the
earlier ones have a somewhat oblique ledge on
the fore-stock defined by a faintly curved line.
This ledge develops into a long moulding
with a projecting edge on some of the later
weapons. The locks provide examples of the
evolution of the bridle (cf. PI. 5 3 :6). We shall
have occasion to revert to this when dealing
with corresponding phenomena in France.
We will now only add to these ivory stocked
pistols a pair with wooden stocks one of which
is in the Musee de l'Armee in Paris (No.
M 1705), the other in Mr U. Buch's collection
in Copenhagen (PI. 53:3, 5). They are signed
'H. Renier' on the barrel tangs. Robert says
that the pistol in the Musee de l'Armee is
French of the mid eighteenth century 16 . The
correct dating is, however, the 1660s. As to the
country of manufacture, they undoubtedly
belong to the Netherlands group and can help
in clarifying the relationship between French
and Netherlands manufacture in the decades
subsequent to 1650.
Another group related in style to the ivory
stocked ones has iron stocks (PI. 5 3 :4). They
are mostly pistols, but there are also guns. This
group is not of much use as regards dating and
style problems and is not therefore treated
further*.
Editor's Note
* Ivory-stocked pistols are discussed by
E. von Philippovitch, 'Elfenbeinpistolen'.
Zeitschrift fur historische Waffen- und Kostum-
kiinde. 1963. P. 96.
f This group has since been discussed by
G. M. Silferstolpe: 'An uncommon flintlock
construction during the middle of the
seventeenth century'. Uvrustkammaren. Vol.
IV. P. 203.
Notes to Chapter Seven
1. Binder, 'Neuerwerbungen des Berliner
Zeughaus'. Zeitschrift fur historische Waffen-
und Kostumkunde. Bd. X. Pp. 93-96.
2. Le Musee de l'Armee, Armes et armures
anciennces. Pp. 123, 124. PI. XL.
3. Laking, A Catalogue of the armour and arms
in the armoury . . . in the palace, Valetta,
Malta. P. 10. PI. VII.
4. Opis moskovskoj oru^ejnej palati. V-VH. Pp.
323, 324. Picture 418.
5. Ilgner, 'Maastrichter Elfenbeinpistolen'.
Zeitschrift fur historische Waffen- und Kos-
tumkunde. Bd. XII. Pp. 210-14. Ibid.
Bd. XIII. P. 19. 'Elfenbeinpistolen Peters
des Grossen?.' P. 68.
6. Kessen, Over de wapenindustrie te Maastricht
in vroeger tijden (De Maasgouw, Limburg's
jaarboek voor geschiednis, taal en kunst,
56: te jaargang. Pp. 18-21). Translated and
reprinted in Zeitschrift fur historische Waffen-
und Kostumkunde. Bd. XVII. Pp. 27-60.
7. Cf. Pelka, 'Elfenbein'. Bibliothek fur kunst)
und Antiquitatensammler. Bd. XVII. Pp.
235, 238.
8. Eivrustkammarinventarium 168}. (Zacharias
Renberg's inventarium 1686.) P. 260. No. 2.
Palace Archives. Livrustkammaren. Vag-
ledning 1921. P. 59. Nos. 435, 436.
9. Stocklein, Meister des Eisenschnittes. PL
XXIII-XXV.
10. Boeheim, Meister der Waffenschmiedkunst.
Pp. 129, 130.
11. [Claudelin], Catalogue of the Collection of arms
in the Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm. P. 69.
12. Ilgner, 'Maastrichter Elfenbeinpistolen'.
Zeitschrift fur historische Waffen- und Kos-
tumkunde. Bd. XII. P. 212. 111. 9.
13. Ibid. P. 212. 111. 11.
14. Opis moskovskoj oru^ejnej palati. Picture 418.
Ilgner, 'Maastrichter Elfenbeinpistolen'.
Zeitschrift fur historische Waffen- und Kos-
tumkunde. Bd. XIII. P. 19.
15. Opis moskovskoj oru^ejnej palati. Picture 418.
Ilgner, 'Elfenbeinpistolen Peters des Gros-
sen'. Zeitschrift fur historische Waffen- und
Kostumkunde. Bd. XIII. Pp. 68, 69.
16. Robert, Catalogue des collections composant le
Musee de I'Artillerie. T. IV. P. 306.
78
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Thuraine and Le
Hollandois Style
The increasing improvement of the
French flintlock firearms shows a steadily-
rising curve during the period 1630-50.
A remarkably strong, one might almost say a
mercurial, development set in in the 1650s. It
was undoubtedly due to some definite, though
as yet unknown, cause. The economic boom
under Fouquet's direction might provide one
explanation, the immigration of prominent
foreign masters another. We find both a 'La
Hollandois' (cf. p. 80) and a 'Lallemand' 1
settled in Paris during this decade.
It is also tempting to think that gunsmiths
who had moved in from the Barrois district of
Lorraine may have contributed to this rapid
development. Le Barrois and its capital Saint-
Mihiel has been exposed to French military-
invasion and economic despoliation as a conse-
quence of Duke Charles IV of Lorraine's
mistaken policy. Finally the district was
ravaged by the plague. To succour the inhabi-
tants relief measures were organized by evacu-
ating them to better favoured communities. It
is known that among those who left le Barrois
in the 1640s was Jean Berain the gunsmith,
father of the famous designer of ornament of
the same name. It is known that Jean Berain
Sr.'s brother Claude, also a gunsmith, lived
and worked in Paris in 1645 and until the
1 65 os*.
There is a pair of Charles X Gustavus's
pistols in the Livrustkammare (Inv. Nos. 1614,
161 5. PI. 54:i) 3 , inscribed 'Barroy' in an
engraved Baroque cartouche on the locks.
These closely resemble the locks on Louis
XIV's pistols in the Wallace Collection (cf. PI.
50:3). But their squat cocks, plum shaped jaw-
screw and steel-springs with a short lower arm
without springs are more old fashioned. The
trigger-guards, divided at the front end, also
indicate that the pistols date from the period
about 1650, perhaps even earlier. Finally, the
flat pommels, distinctly rounded in profile, are
so typical with their fluted butt-caps that there
should be no doubt of this dating. A four
barrelled Wender gun in the Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Vienna (Waflensammlung No. D
362) has a lock of similar forms and is signed
in the same manner. There may be doubt
whether 'Barroy' is a personal name — the
signature 'P. Baroie' on a Wender pistol in the
Keller collection 4 implies this — or should be
regarded as a parallel to the 'Lallemand' and
'Le Hollandois' instances just mentioned. If
79
Flintlock
the latter is the case he could hardly have
stayed on in the Barrois district.
In type the pistols in the Livrustkammare
mentioned above, signed 'Gilbin a Paris' (Inv.
Nos. 1629, 1630. PL 54:2)' develop from the
Barroy pistols. They have unfortunately not
reached us in their original state, having
probably been shortened. They have certainly
been fitted with new fore-sights and their jaw-
screws do not seem convincing. They are
important as immediate precursors of the type
of firearms with which this chapter proposes to
deal. The same can be said of a pistol formerly
in the Lowenburg on Wilhelmshohe at Cassel
(Inv. No. W 1 210. PI. 54:3) but now missing
with the inscription 'A Lesconne' on the lock-
plate. In this instance the fore-stock has been
shortened but the pistol is otherwise intact.
The inscription has the calligraphic flourishes
of the 165 os (even Gilbin made use of Roman
capitals). The trigger-guard is divided at both
ends with a suggestion of filling ornament.
Underneath is the medallion typical of Nether-
lands weapons. The butt is closely related to
those with a distinctly rounded contour and
has a butt-cap with half-length spurs and a
central screw as yet slightly developed. On the
lock we find practically all the features of the
early ivory stocked pistols : the convex forms,
the small chiselled details, the scrolled spur of
the steel and a small, conical cock screw with
a groove. The pistol in the Lowenburg is
definitely late enough in period for the new
style to have had its breakthrough in Paris.
But, even so, both this and the two pairs of
pistols just mentioned represent the new phase
that French gun making reached in the middle
of the seventeenth century.
The consistency in the design of the early
ivory stocked pistols in the 1650s and the fact
that these forms constitute the basis of Paris
fashion during that same decade justifies us in
calling the new French style after the firm of
Thuraine and Le Hollandois. This name sug-
gests a style continuing, on the one hand,
along the old French lines, while showing,
on the other hand, new features which were
probably introduced from abroad.
Very little is known of the personalities of
80
these two masters 6 . Thuraine was probably a
Frenchman. It is very possible that he alone —
after his collaboration with Le Hollandois
ceased — signed a number of weapons in the
Tojhus Museum, Copenhagen (Inv. Nos.
B 664-666, et al.) and in the Livrustkam-
mare. We shall return to these. A garniture
in the Tojhus Museum signed 'Les Thuraines
a Paris' (No. B955) 7 , presumably denotes
co-operation between father and son. Nothing
is known as to whence he came, when he
was born and when he died. This also
applies to his partner, except that Boeheim
contributed the valuable item of infor-
mation that his real name was Adrien
Reynier and that he was born about 1630.
Boeheim, unfortunately, does not mention his
source, nor for his statement that Reynier had a
son of the same christian name who was also
called 'Le Hollandois' and was born about
1680. We know, however, that this younger Le
Hollandois became 'Arquebusier ordinaire du
Roi' in 1723 and that he was granted a 'brevet
de logement' in the Louvre on 18 January 1724,
after 'sieur Boyer, peintre du Roy' 8 . Boeheim
mentioned several pieces with his signature.
According to the same writer the firm of
Thuraine and Le Hollandois received the title
of 'arquebusiers ordinaires du Roi' about 1650.
As belonging to 'Les artistes de la maison du
Roi' they were certainly identified with the
Court circles, but nothing is known of a 'brevet
de logement' for them. Their case appears to
corroborate the saying 'Tous les bons maitres
ne logent pas a la galerie du Louvre'. It is not
known where they had their workshop.
The most important source of information
concerning the nature of the production of the
two masters is the pattern book Plusieurs
models already mentioned (cf. p. 143. PI.
115, 116).
The three first pages after the title page are
for several reasons worthy of special mention.
One is the fact that they contain twenty-five
Parisian signatures including the publishers'
own name. This figure indicates that the extent
of the gun making trade must have been
imposing. The signatures given are as follows :
Casin, Choderlot, De Foullois, De Narcy, De
Neuf Maisons, Des Trois Maisons, Des
Granges, Druart, Durie, Frenel, Galle, Garret,
La Cousture, Laligan, La Marre, Le Bour-
gignon, Le Conte, Mascon, Alexandre Masson,
Jean Masson, Mayer, Nanty, Naudin and
Prebes. We have already encountered Choderlot
on the Tojhus Museum's Wender pistols (cf.
above p. 50). The name La Marre we have
found in Vienna and Mayer in Lyon. We will
find some of the rest as masters of other sur-
viving weapons. The list for that matter is not
complete as it does not include Gilbin, Lalle-
mand or 'Gaultier' 9 , nor such an influential
master as Francois le Couvreux, who lived in
the Louvre. He moved from there to the Palais
Royal in 1653 and was allowed to build a
smithy at his new abode as compensation for
the heavy expenditure he had incurred as an
inventor. This applied especially to a machine
which could fire 250 shots in less than a quarter
of an hour. His eldest son Jean was granted
this dwelling 'en survivance' on condition that
he permitted his mother, Antoinette Potier, to
live with him. In 1657 this benevolence was
augmented with permission to build a shop
also at this meeting place and promenade of the
fashionable world 10 .
The French material available for the study
of the Thuraine and Le Hollandois style might
be expected to be vast and varied. This is not
the case. As far as these two masters working
together are concerned it is limited to the
pattern book and two guns in the Tojhus
Museum, Copenhagen (Inv. Nos. B 662, B 663.
PI- 56, 57) 11 - Berain's well-known pattern book
Diverses pieces tres utile pour les archebustieres . . .
(PI. 117, 118) also belongs primarily to this
group.
Still another pattern sheet belongs to the
style, viz. the last one in Marcou's album
signed: Marcou Inuenit 1657 Jacq[uinet]
scul[psit] (PI. 113:2).
Apart from the two guns in Copenhagen
the following pieces show the same style: a
pistol by Gaultier of Paris, unfortunately
restocked; a pair of pistols by Casin of Paris in
the Historisches Museum, Dresden (Inv. No.
H 19. PL 5 5) 12 ; a pair of pistols by Monlong of
Angers in the Schwarzburg Zeughaus (Inv.
The Thuraine and Le Hollandois Style
Nos. 1288, 1289. PI. 6i:i-5) 13 ; a gun in the
Musee de l'Armee, Paris, with Le Couvreux's
signature (Inv. No. M 588. PI. 58); and a
Wender in the Livrustkammare (Inv. No.
3888. PI. 59, 60). Its lock is signed by le
Conte, the inlay of the stock 'Berain fecit' 14 .
Both these last mentioned weapons and the
pistols in Dresden belong on account of their
form as well as their rich decoration to the very
finest Parisian gunsmiths work.
The new features in the Thuraine and Le
Hollandois style are: the convex forms, a
certain style of chiselled decoration which
appears on cocks, steels and steel-springs and
also fills the triangular holes in the forked ends
of the trigger-guards, the finish of the trigger-
guards at both ends in lobate leaves, the peep-
sight, the rear ramrod-pipes and characteristic
forms of butt and bridle.
To find an explanation of the convex forms
we must begin with the pistols of 1630 by
Ezechias Colas of Sedan (PI. 27) mentioned on
p. 53. The lock of one of the pistols has flat,
that of the other convex, forms. The rear point
of the lock-plate is rounded and countersunk.
An obvious peculiarity is that the screws do
not pierce the plate as is the case with the flat
shaped French flintlocks. The convex plates
gave greater stability to the construction of the
lock. The text of the illustration in the Diderot
et d'Alembert's Encyclope'die 1 * explains this by
saying that the screws can be made longer and
get a better grip in the heavier lock-plate.
The group treated on p. 56 with two locks to
one barrel (PI. 31:1, 2) explains how the con-
vex form must have originated. It began on
cocks and steels. On the pistol from the
Rotunda at Woolwich*, which appears to date
from the 1630s, only the rear part of the lock-
plate is convex. This is distincdy defined by
means of a curved edge. The plate has, in addi-
tion, what has previously been called 'broken'
edges, as is the case with the gun at Skokloster
and the pistol in Dresden. The Skokloster
pistols, on the other hand, show entirely
rounded edges while retaining a flat surface
on the plate. The convex forms of the lock-
plates developed through the rounding-off of
plates with high bevelled edges. The need of
81
Flintlock
variation, perhaps also a practical necessity
on account of the saddle-holsters, resulted in
the countersunk rear point of the flat lock-
plates. The screws penetrate the plates in the
entire group with two locks.
All these early pieces with embryonic convex
forms come from a region to the north of
France. It is significant that the French wheel-
locks, which may be considered to have played
their part in the 1630s, are flat in form and the
same applies to all flindocks which have been
definitely proved to be French from the period
prior to 1650. When convex forms arrived they
ran parallel with the flat forms. This parallelism
can already be observed in older examples of
the group with decoration in relief. It is also
characteristic of the Thuraine and Le Hol-
landois style in which rounded forms were first
adopted with a certain amount of hesitation.
Contemporary flintlock weapons of northern
provenance show entirely rounded forms, for
example the ivory stocked pistols, even the
earlier ones. A study of Netherlands wheel-lock
arms of this period brings the same result.
Roundness of forms, in itself a natural form of
the Baroque, was an established fashion by the
middle of the century.
The trigger-guard finials on firearms of the
Thuraine and Le Hollandois style are designed
as multilobate leaves. These have very tiny
and simply designed prototypes in the group
with relief decoration, more precisely, the
variant with reliefs set in a frame of ovals made
up of leaves and flowers and with trigger-
guards of more graceful shapes : for example,
garnitures Nos. 67 and 112 in the Wrangel
Armoury at Skokloster (PI. 43:4) and the
Tojhus Museum's gun No. B661. The leaves
are also to be found in an inconspicuous form
on springs in the Wender group. Larger and
more lobate leaves occur on the pistols by Jean
Dubois of Sedan at Skokloster (PL 28 :i). Here
it is a case of direct association with trigger-
guards of the Thuraine and Le Hollandois
group, whereas those of the Dubois pistols
are of the same kind as we have found in
France; gently curved and forked at the fore-
ends. The custom of filling up the triangular
openings between the trigger-guard arms was
82
begun here with a tiny lump hollowed out at
the sides and inserted in the actual angle. The
pistols can be dated from the period prior to
1650 but hardly earlier. They definitely indicate,
however, that the origin of the small chiselled
details is to be sought to the north of France.
There is no difficulty in giving further examples.
Louroux of Maastricht fills in the same
space in the ivory stocked pistols at Skokloster
(PL 52:1) with an ornament made up of rows
of balls. So does the master of the above
mentioned Wijk Collection (PL 44:2). Jan
Knoop of Utrecht filled the entire front angle
but left the rear one open on Admiral Martin
Tromp's (d. 1653) pistols in the Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam (PL 30:5).
The partiality for minor chiselled details,
characteristic of the Thuraine and Le Hol-
landois style, is an expression of the Baroque
love of movement as in the case of the reliefs
on the group dealt with in chapter six. Direct
borrowings from the firearms chiselled with
reliefs can be observed in Marcou's pattern
sheets. We have also seen how the Skokloster
Louroux pistols with ivory stocks depend to a
certain extent on these. The chiselled leaves
and other minor chiselled decorative details
on firearms of Maastricht manufacture resemble
those on Parisian firearms. The pistol men-
tioned above in the Lowenburg ('A Lesconne)
also has these minor chiselled details on cock
and steel.
The use of side-plates becomes a regular
feature with the Thuraine and Le Hollandois
style. The left side of the butt corresponding to
the lock-plate lacked this reinforcement on the
earlier snaphance and flintlock arms ; this is still
the case on the earlier ivory stocked pistols
and those by Gilbin of Paris. The covering of
the left side of the Bourgeoys gun in the Her-
mitage museum with a richly ornamented
metal plate is an exception. So is the cartouche
embellished with arms adorning the corres-
ponding part of the early small-bore flintlock
gun in Windsor Casde (PL 14:3). We occasion-
ally find before the middle of the seventeenth
century small washers for the side nails made
of horn, bone or metal. Examples can be seen
on the earlier relief decorated group, for
The Thuraine and Le Hollandois Style
example Charles X Gustavus's guns in the
Livrustkammare (PI. 37:5 and 38:5). It must
have been a fairly obvious idea to link up these
plates with a 'bridge'. It is all the more natural
that this idea should have been conceived in
western Europe as the use of side-plates for
another purpose, i.e. as bearings for the wheel-
shaft, was common in the area of the French
wheel-lock. These bearings are held by lock
screws. The Livrustkammare Wender by David
of Liege fPl. 29 14) has been cited as an example
of a flindock weapon with side-plate of early
type. The side-plate is also to be found on
ordinary single barrelled arms, as on a pair of
pistols in the Schwarzburg Zeughaus (In v.
Nos. 1290, 1 291). They are signed 'P. Formen-
tin' 18 on the lock-plates.
In the Wender group the side-plates are often
in the form of a monster or fantastic creatures
flanking a cartouche (PL 25 13, 4). This type is
found on the Tojhus Museum's ivory stocked
pistols by De la Pierre of Maastricht (PI. 5 3 17).
This and the two inter-twining monsters are
well represented in Marcou and the two
engravings in the Thuraine and Le Hollandois
style in Jacquinet's album and also in Berain.
These side-plates now mentioned serve only as
a base for the heads of the lock screws and do
not extend beyond the part of the stock
corresponding to the lock-plate. They are inset
so that their surface is flush with that of the
stock and they are decorated with engraving.
There will be occasion to refer to other types
of side-plate that trace their origin to the 1650s
in another connection. It should be pointed out
here, however, that the Casin pistols in Dresden,
the oldest arms in the group, have silver side-
plates countersunk in the stock. They form a
strip composed of symmetrically arranged
ornament between the lock screws. The part
on the left side of the stock corresponding to
the lock-plate could also be decorated with
metal inlay. There are examples of this both on
pattern sheets and on existing weapons. Side-
plates and this kind of decoration occur
together in the Thuraine and Le Hollandois
pattern book. It is doubtful if any of Berain's
figures in metal should be considered as
washers for the screw heads. They would in
such a case represent a starting point for this
fashion.
The side-plates are a novelty both in decora-
tion and construction. The bridle, on the other
hand, is purely functional. Both the original
form and its successor are found in the ivory
stocked pistols and ones closely associated with
them (PI. 53:5, 6).
It has been mentioned, in the chapter on lock
constructions, that Schon and Thierbach indi-
cated two stages in the evolution of the bridle.
There is first of all a 'bridge' crossing half the
tumbler; then comes one with a point of
attachment at the sear screw as well. As an
example of the earlier type, 'the simple bridle',
Thierbach mentions a pistol in the Historisches
Museum in Dresden signed 'Lagatz' and illus-
trates its interior 17 .
The development of the bridle on French
territory can be studied on a pair of pistols in
the Livrustkammare (the Sack Armoury) signed
by De Foullois (PI. 65 13), the intermediate stage
prior the above mentioned pistols by Monlong
of Angers at Schwarzburg (PI. 61:5) and on the
pattern sheets by Jacquinet after Thuraine and
Le Hollandois. Of the two guns with the
signature of these masters in the Tojhus
Museum, Copenhagen, the former with flat
forms has no bridle, the latter, which is convex,
has a bridle of the older type. The fully
developed bridle, the double one according to
Thierbach, can be studied on the gun of the
same style by Le Couvreux in the Musee de
l'Armee in Paris (PI. 58:3).
The various examples of the construction in
question mentioned here were made within a
few years of each other. From this it can be
assumed that the designing of the bridle took
a very short time. Pollard 18 quotes from
Rodolphe Schmidt (Armes a feu portatijs, p. 31)
that the bridle appears about 1645. This date
would seem to be early. Material available here
points to the 1650s.
With the introduction of rounded forms the
use of a flange on the pan became general 19 .
The screw securing the tang of the barrel
passes from below on the earlier flintlock
weapons 20 . In the middle of the century the end
of the tang-screw passes through the tang only
83
Flintlock
in exceptional cases. There are examples as
early as the 1640s of the screw passing down-
wards from above (cf. PI. 134:18) and this
becomes the rule from the middle of the
century. To begin with, it is screwed into the
trigger-guard, as on the Devie pistols in
Dresden (PI. 21:7). After that a plaque is
placed in the stock in front of the trigger and,
finally, the trigger-plate serves the same pur-
pose. The stage 'with the separate plaque is
illustrated by the Thuraine and Le Hollandois
guns in Copenhagen and by the Monlong pistol
at Schwarzburg (PI. 61 :z, 3).
Most of the earlier flindocks are shotguns
for shooting flying birds and running game.
Many have fore-sights only. Prior to 1660 this
was a round bead on a short neck, or some-
times a round bead only. A back-sight suitable
for shooting flying birds was used at an early
stage, beginning with a foot dove-tailed in the
barrel with, at right angles to the latter, an
upright plate with sharp edges and a triangular
groove in the centre. On the Livrustkammare
gun Inv. No. 1307 (PI. 16:3) this upright plate,
when seen from behind, is gendy rounded off
in its contour. Viewed from behind, the sight
on No. M 410 of 1636 (PL 19:1) in the Musee
de 1'Armee shows the same profile. Sight and
foot have merged in this instance, so that from
the side the sight recalls the earlier ones in the
form of a box with open ends. The develop-
ment of this type of sight has been mentioned
(pp. 65, 67) in dealing with firearms decor-
ated in relief. The final result is a heart shaped
back-sight with the elongated tip pointing
forwards. Marcou also added a tip at the rear
of a very similar sight, rounded off the contour,
and surrounded the sight with decoration. One
of the three sights illustrated on PL 113:1, too,
has the bridge across the barrel showing that
it is a fully developed back-sight. Marcou
illustrates the sights on two sheets only, on
this and on his last sheet, which shows the
influence of the Thuraine and Le Hollandois
style (PL 113:2). In Berain's pattern book the
sight is represented more fully, and still more
so in the Thuraine and Le Hollandois album.
Summing up, we may say that the existing leaf
shaped sight has been surrounded with chiselled
84
decoration and set on a ring which in some
instances encircles the barrel but sometimes
only extends over that part of the barrel that
is not covered by the stock.
Neither the Thuraine nor the Le Hollandois
gun in Copenhagen has a sight. It is not
altogether improbable that they, like the guns
by Jan Knoop of Utrecht illustrated on PL
62:2, 3, originally had sights in the form of
ribbon-like rings passed over barrel and stock.
The fore-sight of the one, No. B 603, is in the
form of a slightly compressed bead on a short
neck which develops in its turn into a rose
shaped plate curved round the barrel. The
fore-sight of the second, No. B 662, is a plate
with a rounded top most closely resembling a
nipple. The next stage in the evolution of the
fore-sight, the laterally compressed half-drop, is
represented in the Berain album.
Berain was the only designer working in the
Thuraine and Le Hollandois style to have
illustrated a complete flintlock gun (PL 118).
The decoration in high relief is unusual in
France. In this case it appears on the butt, at
the tang of the barrel and, underneath the fore-
stock, at the point where the ramrod enters the
fore-stock. French stocks are otherwise plain
at this time. Their carved decoration is limited
to a small, even minute leaf design, on the left
side at the rear end of the chamber. This is a
heritage from the 1640s. We have, on the other
hand, already called attention to a predilection
for carved decoration on firearms made to the
north of France. The ivory stocked pistols
provide several examples.
The design of the butt was also mentioned
among the novel features. The immediate
starting point is represented by the Thobie
Wender in the Lowenburg (PL 25 :i) with its
gently rounded forms such as the comb curving
smoothly right on to the protuberant belly
opposite the nose of the butt. The Thuraine
and Le Hollandois group have straighter lines
so that the curve of the butt-comb is hardly
noticeable and the end of the butt is extended
so that the contour of the underside forms a
long, unbroken curve with, the bend on the
underside of the butt just as lightly suggested
as on the comb. Seen from the side the butt
Plate 73.
France, Paris.
Charles XFs pistols. Given by Louis XIV in 1673. 1. One
of a pair, by 'Piraube aux galerie a Paris'. 2. Double barrel-
led pistol by Alexandre Masson of Paris; Stockholm,
Livrustkammaren 1626, 1701 and 3886.
Plate 74.
France,
Angers.
c. 1670
Paris and
1 and 2. The pistol on PI. 73:3. 3-7. Side-plate of gun by
Boular of Angers ; Stockholm, Livrustkammaren 5 3 29, on
the gun on PI. 66:1, Charles XI's gun by 'Piraube aux
galleries a Paris'. Lowenburg Castle W. 1292, the gun on
PI. 70:2, and gun by Alexandre Masson of Paris. Stockholm,
Livrustkammaren 1338. 8. Pommel of pistol on PI. 73:1.
9. Pan with arm on gun by Martin of Angers. Stockholm,
Livrustkammaren 19/6.
Plate 75 .
France, Paris.
1 670s.
Charles XI's pistols, each one of a pair. 1 and 2. By 'Piraube
aux galleries a Paris'. 3 and 4. By Frappier and Monlong
of Paris; Stockholm, Livrustkammaren 4072 and 12/24.
Plate 76.
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France, Paris.
1682.
Louis XIV's gun, signed 'Piraube aux galleries a Paris
1682'. Windsor Casde 425.
Plate 77.
France, Paris.
1680s.
1. Gun by Gruche of Paris; Munich, Bayerisches National-
museum 13/588. 2. Emperor Charles VI's gun by the same
master; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Waffensmm-
lung. A 1674.
Plate 78.
France, Paris.
1680s.
Gun by Laurent le Languedoc of Paris; Stockholm,
Livrustkammaren 30/10.
Plate 79.
France, Paris.
1 680s.
Garniture of gun and pistol, one of a pair by Chasteau of
Paris; Copenhagen, Tojhusmuseet B 960, B 961.
Plate 80.
France, Paris.
1688-94.
Pistols each one of a pair, by 'Piraube aux galleries a
Paris'. 1, 2 and 6. 1688; Copenhagen, Tojhusmuseet B 982.
3 and 7. 1690; Windsor Castle 496. 4, 5 and 8. 1694; Dres-
den, Gewehrgalerie 736.
Plate 81.
France, Paris.
c. 1690.
1-5. Gun by Le Languedoc of Paris; Dresden, Gewehr-
galerie 735. 6. Detail of gun by Le Hollandois of Paris;
Paris, Musee de l'Armee M 601.
Plate 82.
Netherland, Amsterdam.
1 and 2. Garniture of gun and pistol, one of a pair, by
'Pierre Stahrbus' (Amsterdam); Copenhagen, Tojhusmuseet
B 934—5. 3. Charles XI's gun by 'Starbus a Amsterdam'.
Given by Starbus in 1687; Stockholm, Livrustkammaren
1331.
becomes distinctly triangular. A suggestion of
a flange, i.e. a moulding, accentuating the
extension of the small into the butt begins to
be manifest (cf. PI. 56-59).
The butts of the immediately preceding
decade were thin with parallel sides when seen
from behind. The progressive increase in
volume of the butt during the second quarter of
the 1 600s was maintained. The butts were
rounded off still more and a widening can be
observed at the bottom, but parallel sides still
predominate about 1660 (cf. PL 56, 60).
A further detail on the stocks deserves
mention — the simple carving in the form of an
's' extending from the rear ramrod-pipe right
along each side of the stock. It is not found
on all the ivory stocked pistols nor on all the
surviving firearms of the Thuraine and Le
Hollandois group; it is, however, present on
both the guns in Copenhagen (PL 56:4 and
57:5)-
Arms of the Thuraine and Le Hollandois
group have no fore-end plate and the earlier
ones no rear ramrod-pipe. The butt-plates are
attached with the usual three screws placed in
a vertical row and are bent over the heel (PL
56:5, 60:2). A short tongue extends from the
butt-plate along the comb of two of the extant
guns (Paris, Musee de l'Armee No. M 588 and
the Livrustkammare No. 3888). This tongue is
definitely linked with the spurs on the pistol
pommels, but it arrives later. Once it appeared
both these features accompany each other in
the development of the next stylistic group
among French flindock arms.
After this general introduction we may
choose some of the weapons belonging to the
group for further examination. They are not
numerous. If more could be traced they would
be welcome additions to the scanty material
available at present. We must remember that
Jacquinet's album, after engravings by
Thuraine and Le Hollandois, appeared not
later than 1660, that Berain's album was avail-
able in 1659 and Marcou's only pattern sheet
in the new style is dated 1657. We may, of
course, assume that some time passed between
the first appearance of the new fashion and its
becoming 'en usage en l'art d'arquebuzerie', as
The Thuraine and Le Hollandois Style
Jacquinet put it, and it was considered oppor-
tune to publish the pattern plates. If we suppose
that it took the fashion a few years prior to
1657 to break through, this would give us the
beginning of the 1650s as a terminus post quern.
The terminus anti quern is indicated by some
weapons dating from 1668 and 1669. They
constitute the introduction to the next style,
the classical Louis XIV (PL 66, 69). This latter
style may not have been entirely new at the time.
The Thuraine and Le Hollandois style must
consequently have flourished at the beginning of
the 1 65 os and lasted until about 1665.
Typologically, the Casin pistols in Dresden
are the oldest of the group (PL 5 5). The barrels
are round, with the chambers partly eight sided
and partly sixteen sided. The forms of the locks
are flat with a ledge at the back of the plate, the
characteristic breadth of the mid seventeenth
century and the short, blunt tongue and the
volute spur on the steel. They have steel-
springs attached from the inside but with the
lower arm still not developed to the same length
as the upper one. The jaw-screw heads are
constricted at the middle. This is recorded as
early as the 1640s. The spurs of the butt-cap are
half length, the triangular spaces in the trigger-
guard, which is divided both in front and
behind, are filled with ornaments of a moderate
size. In them we recognize the rows of beads
at the forked fore-end of the trigger-guards on
the relief decorated pistols from the Wijk
Collection (PL 44:2) and on the ivory stocked
pistols in the Wrangel Armoury at Skokloster
signed by Louroux (PL 52:1). The Casin pistols
also have volutes in the front triangle. The
carving of the stocks around the position of the
rear ramrod-pipe (in this case absent) is not
quite typical but is nevertheless present. The
single ramrod-pipe is short and has a very
restrained profile. The Casin pistols date from
the beginning of the 1650s.
Of the two Thuraine and Le Hollandois
guns in the Tojhus Museum, Copenhagen (PL
56, 57), which come next in date, the forms of
the one are flat, those of the other rounded.
The pattern book shows the same parallelism.
The flat forms simply follow French tradition.
The absence of a bridle on the gun with flat
85
Flintlock
forms is perfectly consistent. It has, too, the
tiny carved leaf on the stock in the angle, to
the left of the rear end of the chamber. The
profile of the ramrod-pipes is less pronounced
although the gun follows the new fashion in
having a rear pipe. The long chamber, eight
sided in the rear half and sixteen sided in the
front half, is finished off in front with a turned
ring instead of the broader and more elabor-
ately profiled ring and foliate wreath of the
second gun.
The volutes which were relics of the pro-
jecting parts of the cock after their practical
function had disappeared lost all contact with
their original purpose in the Thuraine and Le
Hollandois style. They are now small and
stunted, and tend increasingly to disappear. It
is symptomatic that the gun with round forms
has a cock in which the projecting ornaments
are even more rudimentary than in the flat
type. There are pattern sheets with such cocks
without any volutes at all. The convex cocks
are in fact more slender; this may well be
because they are made of thicker metal and
therefore do not run much risk of being
broken. The upper jaw now slides with a
projection in a groove on the spur of the cock.
This is straight and narrows off into two ribs.
In the case of the locks with the flat forms, it
merges directly into the lower jaw. In the
convex forms it curves more smoothly and fits
better into the contour of the rear. The jaw-
screw heads derive from the pear shaped type
compressed at the top, which we have found in
the chiselled group of the 1650s, as well as the
earlier pistols with ivory stocks. The conical
heads of these jaw-screws are turned out
somewhat, rendering them 'mushroom shaped'.
The flat forms are combined with angular
pans and steels cut off straight at the top; the
convex with rounded pans and rounded tongue
shaped steels with sharp edges. On the former
the rear of the lock-plate is sunk and decorated
with engraving or chiselling. It also has a
broader edge than the rest of the plate. In the
case of round-faced locks, the rear of the plate
is only indicated by decoration, usually en-
graved. In both instances the plate finishes at
the rear in a short, blunt tongue. The flat locks
86
often have a small notch in the edge of the
lock-plate behind the pan. This is so on the
Tojhus Museum's Thuraine and Le Hollandois
gun. This feature can be proved to have existed
as early as the 1630s. There is not much more
to be said about the two Thuraine and Le
Hollandois guns in Copenhagen, apart from
the above explanation of the origin of the style,
unless it be that the convex lock-plate has not
yet become entirely convex. In front of the
cock it is still flat. The observations made
above concerning the breadth at the rear and
the rounded off tongue also apply 21 .
The forms of both the other guns which are
submitted as typical of the Thuraine and Le
Hollandois style are flat. The earliest is signed
'Le Couvreux au Palais Royal' : it is in the Musee
de PArmee in Paris (Inv. No. M 588. PL 58).
There is no indication which of the two
masters, father or son, made this gun. They
both lived in the Palais Royal. Robert dates it
from the latter half of the eighteenth century
and lays stress on its outstanding aesthetic
quality 22 . We can unreservedly agree with this
opinion and even emphaske it. As regards the
dating we are bound to differ.
Thanks to the coat of arms in the decoration
of the left side of the stock corresponding to the
lock (PL 58:6) and the initials 'nn' on the
trigger-guaid it can be shown with fair proba-
bility that the gun was made for Nicolas
Nicolay, Marquis de Goussainville, premier
president de la chambre des comptes 1649,
orator and scholar, patron of literature, who
died in 1686 23 .
This beautiful gun has no side-plate and the
ramrod-pipes are cylindrical. It should never-
theless be dated later than the Copenhagen guns
as the lock has a fully developed bridle, extend-
ing to the sear-screw, and the butt seen from
behind is considerably broader than that of the
earlier arms. The V shaped carvings on the
fore-stock above the rear ramrod-pipe are, it is
true, very shallow but they extend further to
the rear than the corresponding carving on the
guns in Copenhagen. The other type which
passes more or less across the stock is repre-
sented, however, on the same gun in the
engraving which ornaments the lock-plate (PL
The Thuraine and Le Hollandois Style
58:2). A hunter shown in it leans on a gun in
the Thuraine and Le Hollandois style and on
it the ledge-like carving is distinctly shown.
The Livrustkammare double barrelled Wen-
der (PI. 59, 60) signed 'Le Conte a Paris' on
the lock and 'Berain fecit' on the silver inlays
of the stock is the most richly decorated French
firearm of the seventeenth century. The entire
gun is completely covered with engraved
decoration, open-work and chiselled orna-
ments, gold damascening and silver inlay.
That the decoration nevertheless does not
impress one as exaggerated is quite remarkable.
In 1673 this magnificent gun formed part of
the gift, regal in every respect, which Louis
XIV sent to Charles XI of Sweden (cf. p. 96).
Most of the firearms included in this gift have
features which associate them with a garniture
of 1669 in Copenhagen. We shall revert to this
garniture which bears the arms and cypher of
the Swedish king. The Le Conte gun belongs,
however, to the Thuraine and Le Hollandois
style and bears Louis XIV's cypher on the
comb of the butt. This gun differs from the
others in the way the chamber is divided up
and designed. The rear half is eight sided, the
forward one divided up into a sixteen sided
zone and a round zone. The latter is separated
from the polygonal zone, and from the rest of
the barrel, by turned rings. This kind of
division which implies adding a round section
to the earlier eight and sixteen sided chambers,
is something new. It subsequently becomes
typical of the earlier forms of the next, the
classical Louis XIV style. The gun lacks a
back-sight but has the same conical nipple-like
fore-sight as one of the Thuraine and Le
Hollandois guns in Copenhagen.
The Monlong pistols of Schwarzburg (PI.
61:1-5) are interesting on account of their
blend of earlier and later forms. The barrel is
divided in the same way as the Le Conte
Wender in the Livrustkammare. The strongly
curved neck of the cock may well indicate the
decade 1650-60, as do the entirely rounded
forms of the lock. The butt-cap spurs of more
than half length also give reason for dating
about 1660. But the absence of a rear ramrod-
pipe and side-plate is an archaic sign; this may
probably be explained by the manufacture of
the pistols in a provincial area. The trigger-
guard, only filled up at its forward end with
ornament, and the bridle which passes right
across the tumbler but does not embrace the
sear-axis, can be explained in the same way.
Some of the novel features in the Thuraine
and Le Hollandois style were probably devel-
oped outside France. They were rapidly
assimilated with traditional French forms and
developed with them. As an example of this
phenomenon we can quote a gun in the
Pauilhac collection (PL 61 :6) signed by De
Foulois le jeune. From the sun inlaid on the
small of the butt and the motto 'nee pluribus
impar' it must have been made for Louis XIV.
The gun must be dated rather late in the 1660s,
mainly on account of the form of the butt. The
latter has, in comparison with the last of the
three guns just discussed, a distinctly rounded
heel — it has become plumper as seen from be-
hind and been given a more accentuated flange.
The earlier triangular shape is abandoned. The
tang of the butt-plate passes along the greater
part of the comb. Another reason for this
dating is that the chamber of the barrel is
proportionately shorter than that of the Le
Conte-Berain Wender in the Livrustkammare.
It also has two fluted sections between the
sixteen sided part and the round one. The pro-
file of the ramrod-pipes, finally, is fuller and
higher.
The gun No. B 674 of the Danish Tojhus
Museum, signed on the lock 'Manyeu a
Libourne' 24 , is typologically earlier than Louis
XIV's gun in the Pauilhac collection. The
earlier features include its long chamber, the
low profile of the ramrod-pipes and the breadth
of the lock-plate at the rear. The latter is,
however, more convex than that of M. Pauil-
hac's gun while the butt is of the same form.
The ornament carved on both sides of the fore-
stock is of the same kind as that we find on
definitely French weapons of the 1670s. This
gun should therefore also be dated later.
To acquire a profounder understanding of
the Thuraine and Le Hollandois style and its
development it will be necessary to make a
more thorough investigation.
87
Flintlock
Although there are convincing parallels
certain differences can be recognized between
the French and Netherlandish styles in the mid
seventeenth century and subsequendy. The
study of pieces made in Maastricht has contri-
buted important information. The Cornells
Coster gun of 1652 in Copenhagen (PL 30:3)
and Admiral Martin Tromp's pistols in Amster-
dam (PI. 30:5) have robust trigger-guards of a
type unknown in France. Another gun in the
Tojhus Museum (Inv. No. B 608. PI. 62 :i) 25 is
of interest. It is not signed, but its origin is
indicated by the City of Utrecht's arms on the
barrel. It can be dated, by the form of the butt
and the lock, from about 1660 or perhaps
slighdy earlier. Details to be noted are the
round barrel, the carved stock and the decora-
tion of the lock-plate.
Barrels of round section from breech to
muzzle are usual in the Netherlands but excep-
tional in France. A pair of pistols by Du Bois
of Paris in the Wrangel Armoury at Skokloster
(No. 40. PL 65 :i) is evidence of their occurrence
in France while Berain shows a round chamber
on one of his pattern sheets. They must other-
wise be regarded as Netherlandish.
Carved stocks did not gain a footing in any
of the central French manufacturing areas. A
trend in this direction is to be found on the
Dauphin's gun in the Berlin Zeughaus (cf. PL
19:5), and the signed Wenders in Paris repro-
duced on PL 25 have carved leaves behind the
barrel-tang screw. This seems to be exceptional
and more likely a sign of external influence
than of French form. Inlay was the common
form of stock decoration in France. The
Tojhus Museum gun No. B 608 has carved
foliage decoration, not only at the barrel tang
but also behind the lock, and in the corres-
ponding position on the left side of the fore-
stock. In support of the view that this carved
decoration is Netherlandish it can be said that
it is encountered in other areas in which flint-
lock manufacture was carried on by immigrants
from the Netherlands before the French style
had secured a position of monopoly. This is the
case in Sweden for example. A gun dating from
the 1 670s made by Peter Froomen, who had
moved to Stockholm from Maastricht, and by
88
the stock maker Johan Christopher Wolff
(Livrustkammare Inv. No. 5616) 28 , has a stock
of this Netherlands type with carved ornament
which also occurs in the Berain pattern album.
The lock on the Tojhus Museum gun No.
B 608 belongs to the same type as that on
sheet '4' of the Thuraine and Le Hollandois
album (PL 116:2). Its decoration follows the
same scheme, but it accentuates the floral
ornament which there is reason to regard as
Netherlandish.
We have a very interesting parallel to French
flindock arms in some guns by Jan Knoop of
Utrechtf. He is particularly well represented
in the Tojhus Museum in Copenhagen and in a
manner that ensures him a prominent place
even among the masters of applied art. Most of
these weapons in the Tojhus Museum belonged
to Ove Bielcke of Ostraat, Chancellor of
Norway (b. 161 1, d. 1674). Two guns in the
Artillery Museum at Akershus, Oslo (Inv. Nos.
A 26 c and A 5 3 d) formerly went with them.
They were transferred from the Tojhus of
Copenhagen 27 and from the chronological
collection of the Danish kings in Rosenborg.
Four of the original collection are flindocks;
Akershus A 5 3 d, two of the guns in the
Tojhus Museum (Inv. Nos. B 602, B 603. PL
62:2-4) 28 and a gun in Rosenborg (Inv. No.
7-176). Two very similar guns are at Skokloster
(the Brahe-Bielke Armoury).
When endeavouring to decide whether the
Thuraine and Le Hollandois style first appeared
in France or in the Netherlands these guns
provide important material for study and it
would be valuable if they could be dated
exactly. Even if this is not at present possible
we can assume that all these Jan Knoop guns
of Ove Bielcke are of approximately the same
period. The inscription which can be read on
two of the wheel-lock guns in the Tojhus
Museum (Inv. Nos. B 592, B 593) 29 , 'M. Bielcke
Den 15 Aprilis 1652' will also serve as a
criterion for dating the others. As we must
remember that the Thuraine and Le Hol-
landois style had already become fully devel-
oped in Paris by then, the problem must
remain unsolved. Nor must we forget that the
gun by Cornells Coster (PL 30:3) dating from
the same year shows more old fashioned forms.
Two guns made for Charles XI as a child,
now in the Livrustkammare, one double
barrelled under and over (Inv. No. 1342) and
one ordinary single barrelled (Inv. No. 1354) 30
also represent Utrecht firearms of about 1660.
The locks are signed 'Utrecht' and have the
town mark on the barrels. The locks are of
simple, convex type. The trigger-guard of the
single barrelled gun is thin and forked at the
fore-end, that of the double barrelled one is
closed and rounded off.
Reminiscences of the western European
style of the 1640s and of the period about 1650
predominated well into the 1660s with the
possible exception of the western border dis-
tricts where it was easiest for the new forms to
obtain a footing. A number of flintlock weapons
signed 'David Rene a Heydelberg' in the
Wrangel Armoury, Skokloster, demonstrates
this. For the engraving of the lock-plate on
one of them (No. 100. PI. 62:5) a pattern in
Berain's album was followed. They also show
the influence of the Thuraine and Le Hol-
landois style in other respects, with the excep-
tion of the entirely closed and rounded trigger-
guards.
The Thuraine and Le Hollandois style also
exercised a marked influence on Italian flintlock
manufacture. The relief decoration of the
Berain album is characteristic of it too, and it
may well be suggested that a direct connection
is not out of the question.
The Livrustkammare possesses very good
specimens of this phase in Italian gun making.
We may choose from among them Charles XI's
gun signed 'Vinsenso Lanse' on the barrel
(Inv. No. 1335. PI. 63:1, 5) 31 , and the same
king's pistols, with the barrels signed 'Lazaro
Lazarino Cominazzo', the locks 'Paolo Francese
Brescia' (Inv. Nos. 1635, 1636. PI. 63:2-4) 32 .
All three pieces are fine examples of Brescian
gun making which was highly appreciated in
its day.
Information on the date of the appearance
of the flintlock in England is conflicting!. ^
would seem that the English 'dog-lock' (cf.
p. 21 and PI. 4) enjoyed great popularity for a
long time and that snaphances were in use for
The Thuraine and Le Hollandois Style
so long that they delayed a more general
use of the flintlock in England. It will be
remembered that the inventory of the French
Cabinet d'Armes calls a snaphance gun 'fusil a
l'Angloise'. This probably expresses the opinion
of the compiler of the inventory on English
conservatism as regards lock types. A modern
writer on the flintlock in England, J. N.
George, defines the flintlock as a lock with a
steel and pan-cover 33 , and pays no attention to
the rest of the construction. In the captions to
his illustrations he nevertheless distinguishes
between snaplocks and flintlocks in the same
way as in the present thesis. George considers
that the English royalists' purchases of Nether-
lands weapons during the Civil War of the
1640s must have involved the importation of
flintlock firearms. In this he is most probably
correct. He frequently quotes reports of
arms having been confiscated during the
Commonwealth (1649-60), but there is no
reliable evidence that such arms were provided
with flintlocks §. A four barrelled pocket pistol,
confiscated in 1657, may of course be suspected
of being a Wender, but details are lacking.
There is at any rate no indication in George's
book of English flintlock manufacture at this
time, even if he does mention that there was a
boom in the manufacture of fine weapons
during the Commonwealth. George calls atten-
tion to a common assumption, which he does
not believe himself, that the better quality
London arms made subsequent to 1660 were
turned out by foreign craftsmen who had
accompanied the emigrants returning to Eng-
land after the Restoration in that year 84 .
Against this supposition he alleges that English-
men were gready in the majority among the
gunsmiths in England during the period in
question and that English production, which
was still further improved in the later half of
the seventeenth century, follows purely national
lines both as regards form and decoration ||.
The pistol which he illustrates on PI. 111:5 as
an example of this national production is
nevertheless a flintlock pistol with purely
Continental forms. It is asserted in the text that
it has a normal flindock 35 . The caption to the
plate, on the other hand, calls it a 'dog-lock'.
89
Flintlock
The earlier English manufacture of hand
firearms has always been dependent on the
Continent, especially on the Netherlands^. A
deeper understanding of firearms made in
England therefore calls for an exhaustive study
of corresponding Netherlandish phenomena.
This has been overlooked in research work and
applies particularly to the earliest English
flintlock arms. Both those illustrated by George
and some others in Swedish and Danish
possession fully confirm the assumptions of
foreign influence on English flintlock manu-
facture during the Commonwealth and at the
Restoration. George is not convinced of this.
In the pistol which George illustrates on
PI. 111:5 we recognize west European forms
of about 1650. It is not clear from the picture
but it looks as if the neck and body of the cock
were designed as a monster, similar to corres-
ponding cocks in the Wender group. The
acorn shaped trigger on the contrary must be
considered to be an example of English tradi-
tion. We find it again on a pair of pistols in the
Wrangel Armoury at Skokloster (No. 93. PI.
64:1). These are signed 'W Parket' on the locks,
and bear the London Gunmaker's Company
marks on the barrel 36 . Their locks are distinctly
reminiscent of the Thuraine and Le Hollandois
style as we know it from the Casin pistols in
Dresden (PI. 54:4). The trigger-guards are of
the same type as on certain Wenders and the
butt-caps with the half length spurs are typical
of the 1650s. Another pair of pistols at Skok-
loster (the Brahe-Bielke Armoury) (PI. 64:2, 3)
should just as obviously be dated from about
1660 at the latest. They are signed by the same
master and struck with the Gunmaker's Com-
pany marks. The Gilbin pistols in the Livrust-
kammare and the pistols signed 'A Lesconne'
in the Lowenburg (PI. 54:2, 3) provide a use-
ful comparison. The pistols at Skokloster have
locks of wholly convex type. Large, boldly
carved leaves on the upper side of the butt
confirm that the prototype is to be found in
Dutch gun making.
Breech-loaders with rifled, removable barrels
were extremely popular in England : there is a
very beautiful pair in the collection at Skottorp
in the Swedish province of Holland (PI. 54:4) 37 .
They are signed by Harman Barne, Prince
Rupert's gunsmith during the Civil War and
London's foremost master at the time of the
Restoration 38 . It is probably correct to date
them about 1660, even if a slightly earlier
dating might be acceptable**. According to
George 'screw-barrelled or cannon-barrelled
pistols' are recorded in literary sources from a
date before the outbreak of the Civil War in
1 642 s9 . Among the personal belongings of
Charles I which fell into the hands of the
insurgents at Wistow Hall, Leicestershire, after
the Battle of Naseby was such a pistolj-f. Fire-
arms of so early a period have yet to be pro-
duced. From what we have hitherto seen the
pistols at Skottorp are among the earlier.
These, too, are distincdy reminiscent of Con-
tinental flintlock weapons, in their ornament
among other features.
Not much later is another pair of pistols of
the same construction, improved by an in-
genious arrangement to prevent the barrel
being lost. They are in the Tojhus Museum,
Copenhagen (Inv. Nos. B 1019, B 1020. PI.
64:5); the lock and barrels are signed 'R. Hewse
of Wooton Basset'. Here, too, the link with the
Netherlands is very definite, primarily through
the trigger-guard. This pair of pistols has
side-plates of an early type, in contrast to all
the pistols of English make mentioned above,
which have no side-plates.
The question of the introduction of the
manufacture of flintlocks into England should
be examined. It will then most certainly be
found that this manufacture begins during the
Commonwealth, that it was in full swing about
1660 and that the prototypes were Nether-
landish.
Editor's Notes
* Now in the Victoria and Albert Museum,
No. M86-1949.
f Firearms made by Jan Knoop have been
discussed in detail by Dr A. Hoff in Vaaben-
historiske Aarbeger, Vol. Va, p. 1 5 .
X An English flintlock pistol in the W. Keith
Neal Collection is dated 1630. This appears
to be the earliest recorded example, but
some of the pistols with the so-called
90
The Thuraine and Le Hollandois Style
English lock (a compromise between snap-
hance and flintlock) may be earlier.
§ There is every likelihood that they were
flindocks. For further information on this
point see J. F. Hayward The earliest forms of
the flintlock in England, Livrustkammaren,
Vol. IV, p. 185, and also The Art of the
Gunmaker, Vol. I, p. 206. English mid
seventeenth century pistols are illustrated
on PI. 5 2 of the same work.
|| The Huguenot gunmakers who came to
England between 1685 and 1700 exercised a
very strong influence. The finest pieces
they made in England adhered to the
fashionable Louis XIV style.
If Dr Lenk tends to place too much emphasis
on foreign influence. The earliest English
wheel-locks and snaphances certainly re-
semble contemporary Continental ones, but
there is some reason to think that the Dutch
gunmakers may have derived the snap-
hance from England rather than vice-versa.
The English lock (see J. F. Hayward, The
Art of the Gunmaker, Vol. I, p. 274) was
evolved independently in England. Towards
the middle of the century Dutch influence
predominated in England.
** Harman Barne died in 1661, so 1660 is the
latest possible date for the pistols. They are
now in the W. Keith Neal Collection,
Warminster. Barne was probably himself of
Dutch origin.
f-f- The pistol at Wistow, traditionally of
Charles I, is, in fact, of later date — after
1660.
Notes to Chapter Eight
1. His signature, 'Lallemand a Paris', is on
the lock of a pistol that indicates a direct
continuation of the style of the 1640s.
Grosse Auktion. Mobilia . . . Waffen . . .
am 2-j juni 19 37 in Zunfthaus sur Meise in
Zurich. P. 162. No. 2522. Picture XVII.
2. Weigert, Jean I Berain, I. Pp. 7-9.
3. Eivrustkammarinventarium J 68 3. P. 57. No.
3. Palace Archives. Livrustkammaren. Vag-
ledning 1921. P. 61. No. 469.
4. [Cederstrom], List of Count Keller's Collec-
tion. (Auction catalogue.) P. 49. No. 301.
5. Livrustkammaren. Vagledning 1921. P. 100.
No. 800. The statement that these pistols
belong to one of Louis XI V's presentation
saddles appears to be due to a mistake in
the Livrustkammare inventory of 1 821.
6. Cf. Boeheim, Meister der Waffenschmiede-
kunst. Pp. 176-78, 210, 211.
7. Smith, Det kongelige partikulaereRustkammer.
P. 38. No. 59.
8. Guiffrey, Eogements d' artistes du Louvre.
(Nouvelles archives de l'art francais. T. II.
P. 86.)
9. Wender pistol in the Jacobi Collection,
Stocksund, Sweden.
10. Brevets accordes . . . a diverses artistes. (Archives
de l'art francais. V. III. Pp. 277-82, 286.
11. Lenk, Tva hossor av Thuraine <& Le Hol-
landois i Tojhusmuseet. (Vaabenhistoriske
Aarbogerl. Pp. 13-24.) Smith, Det kongelige
partikulaere Rastkammer. Pp. 61, 62.
12. Ehrenthal, Fiihrer durch das Konigliche His-
torische Museum. P. 171.
13. Ossbahr, Das furstliche Zeughaus in Schwar\-
burg. P. 158.
14. Livrustkammarinventarium 1683. (Zacharias
Renbergs inventarium 1686). P. 253. No. 1.
Palace Archives. Livrustkammaren. Vag-
ledning 1921. Pp. 87, 88. No. 704.
15. Diderot et d'Alembert. Encyclopedie, Suite
du receuil de planche". T. III. Pp. 59, 60.
16. Ossbahr, Das fiirstlicht Zeughaus in Schwarzj
hurg. P. 158.
17. Thierbach, Die geschichtliche Entwickelung der
Uandfeuenvajjen. P. 67. Fig. 146. Ehrenthal,
Fiihrer durch das Konigliche Historische Museum.
P. 141. No. F 472. The pistol belongs to a
group from the period about 1700 with
lock-plate and mounts of gilt brass. It
cannot therefore provide any information
as to the date of the origin of the bridle.
18. Pollard, A history of firearms. P. 62.
19. A flange is a projection on the pan that lies
at right angles to the lock-plate and covers
the edge of the latter in the recess for the
pan. There is earlier evidence of this con-
struction. The pistols by Choderlot in the
Tojhus Museum (PL 25:2) have a flange
on the pan.
9 1
Flintlock
20. The screw which fixes the barrel-tang to
the stock.
21. One of these guns has been mentioned
earlier in literature, apart from the Vaaben-
bistoriske Aarboger, chiefly in the Tojhus
catalogue of 1877. [Boeck and Christensen],
Katalog over den bistorts ke Vaabensamling paa
Kejobenhavns Tejhus. P. 60. No. A 577. The
writer of the section of the catalogue
dealing with hand firearms, Georg Christ-
ensen, Curator of Artillery, attributes one
of the guns to Christian V's reign (1670-
99). It is probably this attribution that
accounts for Boeheim (Meister der Waffen-
schmiedekunst. P. 210) regarding this gun
as considerably later ('weit jiingerer') than
Corfitz Trolle's gun of 1669 (No. B 664.
Cf. p. 95) which is signed by Thuraine
alone. He nevertheless considers that the
weapons signed with both names are
older. (Ibid. P. 176.)
22. Roberts, Catalogue des collections composant
le Musee d'Artillerie. T. IV. P. 126.
23. Hozier, Armorial general de la France. Pp.
405, 406.
24. Smith, Det kongelige partikulaere Rust-
kammer. P. 45. No. 85. 'Ca. 1655.'
2j. Smith, Det kongelige partikulaere Rust-
kammer. P. 50. No. 104. 'Ca. 1670.'
26. Cf. Lenk, 'Charles XIFs barnbossa. (Liv-
rustkammaren 193S. P. 89.)
27. Katalog over Artilleri-Museet paa Akersbus
1904. Pp. 24, 27.
28. Smith, Det kongelige partikulaere Kust-
kammer. Pp. 21, 22. Nos. 3, 5. PI. 22. 'Ca.
1655.'
29. Smith, Det kongelige partikulaere Rust-
kammer. Pp. 178, 179. Nos. 414, 415.
30. Eivrustkammarinventarium 168} (Zacharias
Renbergs inventarium 1686). P. 263. Nos.
22, 23. Palace Archives.
Eivrustkammarinventarium 1696. No. 14.
Palace Archives. Livrustkammaren. Vag-
ledning 1921. P. 86. No. 692.
Gift to Charles XI by Count Gustavus De
la Gardie. Eivrustkammarinventarium 168)
(Zacharias Renbergs inventarium 1686). P.
257. No. 2. Palace Archives. Called there
'persianska' (Persian). Livrustkammaren.
Vdgledring 1921. P. 89. No. 709.
33. George, English pistols and revolvers. P. 6.
34. George, English pistols and revolvers. P. 31.
35. Ibid. P. 32.
36. Greener, The gun and its developments. P. 287.
Pollard, A history of arms. P. 47.
37. Communicated by Baron Rudolf Ceder-
strom, who also furnished a photograph.
38. George, English pistols and revolvers. P. 31.
39. Ibid. P. 15.
3 1
32
92
Plate 83.
Germany, Dresden.
Close of seventeenth cen-
tury.
s*
Augustus the Strong's gun by Andreas Erttel of Dresden.
Destroyed by fire in 1934.
Plate 84.
Germany, Dresden.
Close of seventeenth cen-
tury.
(^V V
jlAf
Details of the gun on PL 83.
Plate 85.
France, Paris.
1696. 1699.
Pistols, each one of a pair, by 'Piraube aux galleries a Paris'.
1, 4 and 7. 1696; Dresden, Armeemuseum EX 105. 2, 3, 5
and 6. 1699; formerly Berlin, Zeughaus 09. 124.
Plate 86.
France, Paris.
1699.
Gun by 'Piraube aux galleries a Paris 1699'; Kranichstein,
Darmstadt, Jagdmuseum 264.
■
CHAPTER NINE
The Classical Louis XIV
Style
We have shown in the preceding
chapters that thin, divided trigger-
guards occur in the 1650s at the same
time as massive, solid rounded ones in the
ivory stocked pistol group (PI. 52:1, 2). We
find this parallel use of different forms also in
France although there early weapons with
convex forms are rare. The arms in the
Thuraine and Le Hollandois group had divided
trigger-guards and were elaborately orna-
mented. As has already been pointed out a lock
with simplified forms (PI. 116:2) can neverthe-
less be discovered in the album of these two
masters' works. De luxe articles are, as a rule,
preserved while ordinary utility ones become
worn-out, or are thrown away once they are
out of fashion. This probably explains why so
few of the earlier arms with massive, rounded
trigger-guards can be found now. It is
difficult to determine at present how large this
manufacture of the 1650s was, but evolution
did at any rate follow in the line of the simpli-
fied forms. A pair of pistols with over and
under barrels by 'Du Bois a Paris' in the
Wrangel Armoury, Skokloster (No. 49. PI.
65:1), provides a good illustration of the
earliest phase, and a pistol in the Livrust-
kammare (the Sack Armoury. PI. 65 12-4) signed
by 'De Foullois a Paris' is an even better
illustration. The date is confirmed by com-
parison with the lock mentioned above in the
Jacquinet series. Determining factors in dating
are also the breadth of the lock-plates behind
the cocks and, in the case of the De Foullois
pistol, the length of the pommel spurs. These
have not yet reached half way up the small of
the butt. Further the V curved carving of the
fore-stock where the ramrod enters is signi-
ficant. Corresponding to this is the simple
carved V shaped ridge on both sides of the
barrel tang.
Continuing with the De Foullois pistol we
can note the presence of a bridle in its earliest
form and the absence of the side-plate.
These pistols mark the introduction to that
brilliant period in the history of French gun-
making which is called the classical Louis XIV
style in this thesis. It is no mere chance that its
origin can be traced to those very years when
French handicrafts as a whole experienced a
regeneration.
The gunsmiths appear to have succeeded in
long withstanding the absolute rule of the
Lebrun style. A turn of the tide set in, however,
93
Flintlock
the effects of which can be observed at the
close of the 1660s in certain firearms in Swedish
and Danish collections.
Erik Dahlberg resided in Paris from 1667
to 1668 to secure the co-operation of Parisian
copperplate engravers in preparing the publica-
tion of his Svecia antiqua et hodierna. In addition
to his official commission he received private
requests, among them to acquire arms for his
father-in-law, Drakenhjelm, President of the
Board of Customs and Excise, and also for
Svante Svantesson Baner, Privy Councillor,
Djursholm. Erik Wennberg gives some inter-
esting information about this in the new
edition of Svecia antiqua et hodiernal. This is
taken from the portion of the correspondence
between Erik Dahlberg and Samuel Mansson
Agriconius (Akerhielm) and Agriconius's notes
on commissions preserved in Uppsala Uni-
versity Library (U. 147). If we go direct to
Wennberg's sources and to two other letters,
one in the State Archives (Dahlberg No. 18)
and another in the Royal Library (Dahlberg
Collection No. M 1 1) we obtain supplementary
data that enable us to identify some of the arms
mentioned in the correspondence and also
acquire important evidence about Parisian
flintlock arms at the close of the 1660s.
Baner writes to Dahlberg on 26 October,
5 November 1667, that he has arranged for the
making of a flintlock gun ( c Un Arquebugi
Francese Fusil') which he asks Dahlberg to
bring back, as he was anxious that it should not
be damaged at sea. It is of moderate length and
strongly constructed ('d'una longezza moderate
e forte di ferro') so that it could be easily
handled. Baner promises to communicate the
name of the gunsmith by next post. In another
letter Baner requests Dahlberg to procure
walnut planks for gun-stocks.
This was probably how Dahlberg came into
contact with the gunsmith Des Granges, who
lived at Marais de Temple in the old Rue du
Temple ('above the litde strolling players'). He
seems to have been a master who was in great
request, judging by the fact that quite a number
of very fine weapons with his signature are
preserved. Dahlberg not only fulfilled the
Privy Councillor's request but also ordered a
94
lock with accessories for Dahlberg's father-in-
law and a pair of pistols for himself. He assisted
at the same time by ordering two pairs of
pistols for two members of the Gyllenstierna
family. Wennberg mentions the date of a
contract between Dahlberg and Des Granges.
This very interesting document (appendix two)
is amongst Agriconius's papers in Uppsala.
Apart from terms and other data of value it
enables us to identify a pair of the Gyllenstierna
pistols. Dahlberg sent this contract from Calais
with a letter of 16 September 1668, when he
was on his way to England and from there to
Sweden. The letter contains several commis-
sions, among them one concerning Des
Granges, 'the wanton bird' with whom Dahl-
berg is dissatisfied. The pistols were ready and
he asks Agriconius to pay the outstanding
amount although he considers that they were
badly engraved. He has arranged with the gun-
smith for the manufacture of 'two locks for "fus-
ils" (flintlock guns)'. One lock is to be fitted
with a barrel of large calibre which was also
ordered, the other to be sent with the pistols.
Dahlberg had offered Des Granges no livres
(another letter states 105) for the gun complete,
but Des Granges had wanted 10 louis d'or.
They had not agreed : Dahlberg, however, now
accepts the gunsmith's price on the ground
that his father-in-law insists on having the gun
and asks Agriconius to make out the contract.
In his next letter, written on 28 September,
Dahlberg again expresses his dissatisfaction
with the engraving on the pistols and requests
Agriconius to impress upon Des Granges the
need of greater care with the lock and the gun.
He otherwise threatens to have M. Boneau
informed that he must not pay so much, or
perhaps have the pistols he has ordered for the
Gyllenstiernas valued before he pays for them.
It is evident from Dahlberg's letter to Agri-
conius of 1 8 November of the same year that
the price agreed for the locks, fifty livres apiece,
was a condition for the Gyllenstiernas' order
of two pairs of pistols for which Dahlberg had
undertaken to supply a drawing of the family
coat of arms.
Agriconius reports in letters of 2 and 12
October 1668, that Des Granges was at work
on the order, of which one lock and the pistols
would be finished 'in time for the Colonel's
departure'. 'He swears that he has not promised
and cannot give the "platines" (locks) for less
than 60 livres, that he would otherwise prefer
to keep them, although they would be difficult
to dispose of on account of the dog-catch
holding the cock.' Des Granges is unyielding
concerning the price, but Agriconius never-
theless succeeded in signing a contract with
him for one of the guns at a price of 1 10 livres.
The letter continues: 'he (Des Granges) is at
last willing to assemble the second "platine"
here too, claiming that should it be assembled
other than in his presence this would neither
be done well nor could the engravings be
conserved; to which he awaits an answer'. To
all appearances Des Granges's sense of money
matters was well developed.
Africonius's 'memorandum on the Colonel's
affairs contains a note on Dahlberg's pistols
and two locks, one of which was Dahlberg's,
the other Drakenhielm's. There is also a note
in the margin to the effect that the commission
has been completed and 'the ouvrage' sent to
Sweden by a M. Olivet on 1 April 1669.
The sources do not state whether the gunlock
made for Dahlberg was assembled by Des
Granges, or what happened to the Gyllenstierna
pistols. But there is reason to believe that one
pair of the latter and the lock can be identified.
This lock is incorporated in the gun ordered by
Baner which is now in the Bielke gun armoury
at Sturefors. It is No. 40 in the inventory of
1846 (PI. 66 :i) 2 . It was already in this location
in 1758 3 . It is above all possible to identify it
by the dog-catch ('the hook that holds the
cock') a construction which seems to have
enjoyed great popularity in Sweden and is to be
found both on sporting and military weapons.
In Paris it must have been regarded as un-
necessary and very much out of fashion in the
1 660s. The gun has the Baner coat of arms
engraved on the lock-plate. The barrel is
signed 'Des Granges a Paris' with his mono-
gram and also the engraved name of the owner
Gustaf Swantez Baner'. This is the son of the
Lieut. Col. Gustav Carl Baner, b. 1652, d. 1697,
who ordered the gun.
The Classical Louis XIV Style
The Livrustkammare has a pair of pistols
(Nos. 1637, 1638. Pis. 66:2-5, 68:1, 2) on the
butt of which is the baronial coat of arms of
the Gyllenstierna family of Ulaborg. Charles XI
received them as a present from Count Gustav
Oxenstierna 4 . They are also signed by Des
Granges and made in the same style as the gun
at Sturefors. What is more they tally in almost
every respect with the description of the
pistols in Dahlberg's contract. This agreement
as regards master, purchaser and period justi-
fies their identification with the pair of the
pistols ordered by M. Boneau.
The picture of Parisian gunmaking of the
1 660s can be completed by three guns in the
Tojhus Museum, Copenhagen (Nos. N 664. PI.
69:1, 3, 5. B 667, B 668) signed by 'Thuraine
a Paris' and dated 1669. They belonged to
Corfitz Trolle, Privy Councillor of State and
Assessor of the Department of Administration
(which succeeded the Council of State and the
Danish Supreme Court of Judicature), b. 1628,
d. 1684. His name, together with the date, is
engraved on the barrels 5 . The Trolle coat of
arms is also reproduced on the thumb-plate
of a pair of pistols (Nos. B655, B 666. PI.
69 :2, 4). These form a garniture with one of the
guns (No. B 664). To this dated material we
can add a pair of pistols in the Rosenborg
Nos. 7-180, 7-184) signed 'Des Granges a
Paris'. They belonged to King Frederick III of
Denmark and cannot be later than 1670, the
year of the king's death. They are probably
somewhat earlier.
Some other guns resemble so closely those
just mentioned that they can be dated to the
same period. Amongst these is a pair of pistols
by Des Granges at Sturefors (No. 54 in the
inventory of 1846). They were presented in that
year by Colonel Count C. N. Kalling. They
have, however, been restored and probably
shortened. Quite typical and in splendid condi-
tion is a pair of pistols by 'Cuny et Lahitte a
Paris' in the Brahe-Bielke Armoury, Skokloster
(PI. 67:2, 3, 68:4, 7) and a gun by 'Deverre a
Paris' in the Wrangel Armoury (Nos. 116. PI.
67 : 1,4, 68 :6). Baron Rudolf Cederstrom pointed
out concerning this gun that the mirror mono-
gram in gold made up of the letters 'o w' and
95
Flintlock
'k' under a Swedish count's coronet on the
chamber of the barrel can be interpreted as
Otto Wilhelm von Konigsmarck. Konigsmarck
resided in Paris as ambassador from December
1671 to May 1672. The gun, however, is
probably some years older.
Our knowledge of Parisian gunmaking of
the early 1670s is greatly enlarged by reference
to the flintlock firearms preserved in the Liv-
rustkammare. These formed parts of Louis
XIV's gift to Charles XI in 1673. It was pre-
pared during the spring and early summer of
that year, despatched from Paris in June,
presented to the King at the Palace of Stock-
holm on 12 December: the gift comprised
twelve richly caparisoned horses and weapons 6 .
The following guns in the Livrustkammare
can be traced back to 1686. They were entered
in the inventory by Zacharias Renberg, Chief
Comptroller of 'His Royal Majesty's Litde
Armoury''. The list begins with 'The King of
France's Presents': Wender, the lock-plate
signed 'Le Conte a Paris', the stock 'Berain
fecit' (Inv. No. 3888. Pis. 59, 60, cf. p. 87), gun
by 'Piraube au gallerie {sic.) a Paris (Inv. No.
1337. PL 71), gun by 'Alexandre Masson a
Paris' (Inv. No. 1338), gun by same master
(Inv. No. 1339. PI. 70:2), revolver gun by same
master (Inv. No. 1345) 8 .
There is evidence in the same inventory to
show that the following pistols belonged to
saddles which were part of the gift : a pair by
'Piraube aux galerie (sic.) a Paris. (Inv. Nos.
1626 and 29/11. PI. 73 : 1, 74:8). They probably
form a set with gun No. 1337, a pair by 'Le
Couvreux a Paris' (Inv. Nos. 1627, 1628), a
pair by 'Foulois le jeune a Paris' (Inv. Nos.
163 1, 1632. PI. 72), a pistol by 'Alexandre
Masson a Paris (Inv. No. 1701. PI. 73:2) and a
pair by 'Champion a Paris' (Inv. Nos. 3886,
3887. PL 73:3, 74:1, 2) and a pair by 'Des
Granges a Paris' (Inv. Nos. 1699, 1700) 9 .
Of these pistols the last mentioned are
breech-loaders with turn-off barrels. The pistols
by Alexandre Masson have over and under
barrels with their characteristic lock construc-
tion (cf. PL 119:2).
There was a definite reason for making a
gift of firearms that were not absolutely new
96
and that was the shortness of time. The
Marquis Isaac Pas de Feuquieres, the French
envoy, arrived at Stockholm at the New Year
with the task of studying the young king's
interests. He soon became convinced that
riding and hunting were among these and sent
home reports to that effect. But the consign-
ment was already on its way in July. This must
have called for work at top pressure. It is not
therefore surprising if some weapons that were
not exactly new were included. The magni-
ficent Wender by Le Conte and Berain is one of
the earlier weapons. The most advanced ones
are the pistols by Le Couvreux and Champion,
both the guns by Alexandre Masson, as well as
the gun and pistols by Piraube.
It is a matter of great satisfaction to be able
to include the works of Louis XIV's most
famous gunsmith among these characteristic
arms. Bertrand Piraube was granted a 'brevet
de logement' (the eighth) in the Louvre, on
25 January 1670, and confirmation of this in
March 1671. He succeeded Gravet, the gold-
smith. Germain Brice speaks of him in his
book on Paris as a gunsmith in whose work
rare beauty was to be found 10 . In 1725 the
eighth 'logement' in the Louvre had a new
occupant 11 . Boeheim has devoted a monograph
to Piraube in Meister der Waffenschmiedekunst 12 ,
and we shall often encounter his name as we
continue our present study. Weapons signed
'Piraube aux galleries a Paris' are to be found
in most armouries and collections of ancient
arms. They are of inestimable value for
acquiring a knowledge of the very best in
French gunmaking in the time of Louis XIV.
A large number are dated.
The remaining firearms in Louis XIV's gift
occupy an intermediate position between the
arms of 1668-69 an< ^ tne most modern of the
year 1673. This applies to a pair of pistols and
two guns by De Foullois le jeune, that is, the
revolver gun just mentioned and the breech-
loader. An ordinary flindock gun by the same
master was the late 'lamented Colonel Borstell's'
gift to Charles XI (Inv. No. 1336. PL 7o:i) 13
which we include in our typological material.
An analysis of it gives the following informa-
tion.
When Erik Dahlberg signed the contract
with Des Granges for a pair of pistols in 1668,
it was especially required that the barrels were
to be fluted (cf. PL 66:3). These flutings were
then a novelty. The firearms of the immedi-
ately preceding period in the late Thuraine
and Le Hollandois style have a round section
separated by moulded rings in front of the
eight and sixteen sided chamber. The sixteen
sided section was furnished with longitudinal
grooves during the latter half of the 1660s. The
round part in front of the sixteen sided section
was retained. The gun at Sturefors has not
reached this stage although it is contemporary
with the pistols. The evolution continues
towards a still greater differentiation in higher
quality arms. Piraube's gun of 1673 is an
example of this (PL 71:3). But there is not
always conformity and the chambers vary very
much in length. The back-sights remain simple.
Their wings become proportionately narrower
while the bottom of the sight-groove tapers off
into finials at back and front, finishing in the
same way as the ends of the trigger-guards.
'The belt' might be widened or elaborately
decorated (cf. PL 67:4 and 71:3, 5). The fore-
sights are formed like a hog's back.
In the contract just mentioned the convexity
of the lock is emphasized as being modern. The
consistently convex forms, 'rondez a la mode'
are distinctive features of the classical style. We
have made their acquaintance earlier, first to
the north of Paris, occurring consistendy on
ivory stocked pistols and their 'family rela-
tions', then cautiously and incompletely within
the Thuraine and Le Hollandois group. On
French firearms all lock-plates are rounded in
smooth curves from the middle of the 1660s.
The 1668 gun at Sturefors and the Deverre gun
still have broad plates behind the cock, but the
tip has been lengthened — a tendency which
continued in the firearms of 1673 so that the
entire plate tapers off backwards. It is also
slightly more curved, thus giving the lock
greater elegance.
With the convex forms of the late 1660s
went simplified locks with either embryonic
volutes or none at all and a clumsy, swollen
base to the cock. By 1673 the forms became
The Classical Louis XIV Style
more slender and serpentine, while the heads
of the jaw screws were rounded off at the top.
The cock was attached by a screw from outside.
The former had previously been attached some-
times from without, sometimes from within.
Where during the immediately preceding period
a cock-screw was fitted, it had a large slighdy
convex head and foliage ornament in low relief
as well as two cross grooves at right angles.
With the convex lock-plate the cock-screws
acquired small conical heads and a single
groove. Those of the classical style follow the
same rule. They, as well as the heads of the
jaw-screws, the upper jaw of the cock, the steel
spring and the barrel were often blued in the
clear, medium tone which was formerly called
'couleur d'eau' and against which gold especi-
ally, but also bright steel, produced a striking
effect. Ramrod-pipes with much more pro-
nounced profiles accompanied these high screw-
heads. The spur of the steel ended in a scroll
again and was formed as a drop with an
elongated point turned upwards. The steels
were tongue shaped, broad and blunt at the
top. The spring-finial had no longer the lobate
form and was flat and turned. The same applies
to the ends of the trigger-guards. The front
end of these still sometimes had a pierced leaf
ornament, as on the pistols by Cuny et Lahitte
at Skokloster.
Certain of the arms in the Thuraine and Le
Hollandois group have triggers with a pierced
plate and the point scrolled backwards. The
plate was still pierced in 1668 but was smaller in
size. In 1673 it was smaller still and had no
piercing. All triggers throughout the entire
classical period have their points turned up
backwards.
The side-plates provide useful evidence for
dating. During the preceding period they
were simply a connecting link between the
side-nails, generally slightly curved and with a
distinct centre. We have noticed that some
ivory-stocked pistols which must be dated in
the late 1660s have flat, pierced and engraved
side-plates let into the stock (PL 52:6). The
two flintlocks by Jan Knoop of Utrecht
(Tojhus Museum, Copenhagen, Nos. B 602,
B 603. PL 62:2,3) also have side-plates made on
97
Flintlock
the same principle, even if one is provided
with a thin frame.
Flat, pierced and engraved side-plates inset
in the stock are typical of the late 1660s in
France. They are to be found on the 1668
pistols in the Livrustkammare, on those by
Thuraine in the Tojhus Museum (Nos. B 665,
B 666), on the pistols by Cuny and Lahitte at
Skokloster and in particularly elegant work-
manship on the gun by Deverre (PL 68:6, 7).
There are, too, examples without a side- plate:
in this case, the surface of the left side of the
stock corresponding to the lock was decorated
with elaborate inlay as suggested on Berain's
engravings. This is done on Nicolas Nicolay's
gun by Le Couvreux in the Musee de l'Armee
in Paris (PL 5 8 :6). The pistols in the Livrust-
kammare (Inv. Nos. 1631, 1632) by 'Foullois
le jeune' are so decorated (PL 72). On the Des
Granges pistols of King Frederick III of
Denmark (Rosenborg 7-180, 7-184), a plaque
covering the lock-screws decorated with scenes
of horsemen is set in the stock at this point.
The contract quoted previously states that
the side-plates shall be made in the form of a
serpent with volutes in relief. This is early
evidence of a type which is more fully repre-
sented on the guns in the royal gift. Typologic-
ally this kind of side-plate begins with a slightly
curved and reversed V shaped connecting link
in relief between the lock-screws. A gun by
'Boular a Angers' in the Livrustkammare (Inv.
No. 5329. PL 74:3) provides an example of this.
Louis XIV's gun, mentioned previously, by
De Foullois le jeune in the Pauilhac Collection
(PL 61 :6), which is earlier, has moved further
and added sprays of leaves and grotesque
scrolls in low relief. This combination is also
shown on the gun by Des Granges at Sturefors
(PL 74:4). The gun by 'Boular a Angers' just
mentioned shows how this type of side-plate
originated through the ornament set in the
stock being transformed into a part of the side-
plate. Amongst the firearms of 1673 we find
several examples of the high, V shaped 'bridge'
having developed into a serpent coiling over
the entire length. At times it is surrounded by
ornament in low relief, at times branches off
into a number of flourishes of approximately
98
the same height (PL 74:5). The guns by
Alexandre Masson afford examples of still
another type of side-plate (PL 74:6, 7) that
became usual during the following decades
alongside those with the coiling serpent. They
are arranged around a cartouche or a central
feature. This latter lies, as a rule, under the
rear lock-screw. Otherwise they consist of
grotesque scrolls; these are always executed in
relief and repeated on the flat, engraved side-
plates which are set in the stock. They con-
stitute yet another illustration of the transition
from flat forms to convex.
The designing of the thumb-plate proceeds
parallel with the evolution of the side-plates.
It first appears as an ornament on the upper
side of the butt during the preceding period
and continues on arms of the 1660s belonging
to the classical style. The pistols by Cuny and
Lahitte have in this position an engraved silver
plate in the form of a grotesque figure sur-
rounded by scrolls (PL 67:3). On the Des
Granges pistols in the Livrustkammare the
Gyllenstierna coat of arms is inlaid in the
small of the butt (PL 66:4) in the same way,
but without the surrounding decoration, as
Frederick IVs cypher on the ivory stocked
pistols by De la Pierre of Maastricht at Rosen-
borg (PL 53:2). A simple thumb-piece is also
present on the afore-mentioned gun (p. 80)
by 'Les Thuraine a Paris' and Corfit2 Trolle's
gun of 1669 (PL 69:3) in the Tojhus Museum.
The resemblance to the flat, pierced side-plates
let into the stock is manifest here. The pistols
forming a garniture with this gun have, how-
ever, thumb-plates with convex centres en-
graved with the Trolle coat of arms and sur-
rounded by relief scrolls. Above and below,
however, the scrolls are inset (PL 69:4). These
thumb-plates constitute a transition to the
relief cartouches of the firearms in the royal
gift which are engraved with coats of arms or a
cypher or crowned coats of arms with sup-
porting lions, the latter chiselled in relief (cf.
PL 71 :6).
Another feature that coincides in an interest-
ing manner with the fashion for flat engraved
side-plates inset in the stock, is the engraved
barrel signature in the form of a monogram
The Classical Louis XIV Style
(cf. PI. 134:13). Des Granges's signature is
found on the Sturefors gun, Thuraine's on the
gun of 1669 in the Tojhus Museum, and on the
one by 'Les Thuraines' 14 . In the Livrust-
kammare the breech-loading gun by De
Foullois le jeune in the. royal gift (Inv. No.
1345) bears a monogram, there is also a gun
with the crowned cypher of the Queen
Dowager Hedvig Eleonora on the thumb-plate
and the signature 'p d' on the barrel (Inv. No.
1546) 18 . This gun and the Deverre gun at
Skokloster are strikingly alike. Could they have
been made by the same master ?*
The gun butts, like cocks and lock-plates
were very sensitive to development and
fashion. The wood during the classical period
was as a rule, walnut. In the 1660s there was a
change over on fine quality arms to walnut
root ('bois noyer bien marbre et beau de
Grenoble' well figured and beautiful from
Grenoble — Dahlberg's contract with Des
Granges). The butts of the Thuraine and Le
Hollandois style are broad and triangular. On
pieces dating from the transition to the classical
style, such as Louis XIV's gun by De Foullois
le jeune in the Pauilhac collection (PI. 61 :6),
the butt was considerably narrower when seen
from the side, and the heel distinctly rounded.
The gun at Sturefors by Des Granges is more
old fashioned with its triangular form and its
very short neck. It was probably made in
Sweden, but all the other guns hitherto men-
tioned up to the end of 1673 have the same
kind of butts as the Pauilhac gun, very low
with a low comb and a neck which reaches
approximately to the middle of the butt. There
seems to have been an effort to attain the same
balance in the guns even after the butts had
become thicker. This eliminates the earlier
parallel treatment between the sides. Instead
of the three butt-plate screws on earlier pieces
there are now only two (cf. PI. 69:5). The tang
of the butt-plate has at the same time been
elongated until, as early as the late 1660s, it
extends along the greater part of the comb. The
tails of the pistol butt-caps correspond with
this long tang and reach right up to the lock.
These butt-caps embrace pommels which
widen laterally (cf. PI. 68 :z, 3). Their bosses are
low, profiled ovals (PI. 68:2) as on the Gyllen-
strierna pistols in the Livrustkammare. On the
pistols of 1669 in the Tojhus Museum they
have high, turned bosses (PI. 68:5). This last
type also figures in the royal gift together with
lion masks or grotesque masks in relief. These
bosses or masks are surrounded by a decorated
cartouche.
The carved ornament of the stocks is
reduced in the Thuraine and Le Hollandois
group to a leaf in the angle on the left side of
the breech and an Y shaped scroll on each side
of the rear ramrod-pipe. There is sometimes
also a scroll with a curved edge round the barrel
tang. The leaf has disappeared by the close of
the 1 660s and the V shaped scroll at the rear
ramrod-pipe has become a winding groove
with raised edges ending in a volute (cf. Pis.
66, 67). This groove is no longer on the
Piraube gun or on the Masson guns of 1673 m
the Livrustkammare. The raised edges remain,
but of more complicated form. Similar
ornament has been added on both sides of the
barrel-tang (cf. PI. 71 -.4, 5).
These observations on the evolution of the
earlier arms in the classical group of the
Louis XIV period confirm that the Deverre
gun and the Cuny and Lahitte pistols (PI. 67)
can be included amongst the firearms of the
late 1660s. Hedvig Eleonora's gun in the
Livrustkammare (Inv. No. 1546) which has
been mentioned in passing, also belongs here.
It is perhaps the oldest of all. An archaic detail
such as the nipple-like fore-sight suggests this.
The gun by Les Thuraines in the Tojhus
Museum (Inv. No. B 955) closely resembles
those now mentioned, as also all three guns and
the pistols by De Foullois le jeune in the
Livrustkammare.
Some other flintlock weapons with the
Swedish coat of arms of the Palatine period or
with Charles XI's monogram can be dated from
the period of the royal gift. There is a pair of
pistols in the Livrustkammare signed 'Cuny a
Paris' (Inv. Nos. 1649, 1650) which may be
dated in this manner. The Lowenburg at
Cassel possesses a gun by Piraube of Paris (Inv.
No. W 1292) with practically the same coat
of arms on the butt-plate as the gun in the
99
Flintlock
Livrustkammare; it is exactly the same in style
though richer. The Tojhus Museum, Copen-
hagen, has a gun by Le Couvreux (Inv. No.
B 970) 16 , which so closely resembles the pistols
of the Livrustkammare by the same master that
one can assume it forms a garniture with them.
Finally, there is a pair of pistols by 'Gautier a
Paris' (Inv. Nos. B 980, B 981) in the Tojhus
Museum. Considering the close connections
that prevailed between Paris and Stockholm
and knowing that French arms were in demand
we cannot be certain that there were part of
Louis XIV's gift, but it is very probable.
A gun of approximately 1670 signed 'Martin
a Angers' (Inv. No. 19/6) is preserved in the
Livrustkammare. It has an interesting new
feature in its construction; the bridle on the
pan (PI. 74:9), otherwise best known from the
French musket M/1728 17 and other later
military models as well as firearms for civilian
use.
Some barrel makers' marks can be dated
from the examples cited here 18 . We do not
know where these people worked; it was
probably in Paris.
Some details on the firearms of Louis XIV's
gift introduce or forecast coming develop-
ments. These include the butt-heel hinted at on
the Piraube gun in the Lowenburg and
emphasized by Le Couvreux on his gun in the
Tojhus Museum, the steel with a distinct point
on the pistols by Gautier in the same museum
and, furthermore, a medial sighting rib running
along the barrel with which the pistols by
Champion in the Livrustkammare are fitted
(cf. PL 74:1). The design of the very short
eight sided chamber on gun No. 1338 by
Alexandre Masson in the Livrustkammare, on
the other hand, probably has no connection
with the main line of development.
The next year in respect of which such
extensive material is available is 1685. This
year can be read on the tide page of the first
edition of Simonin's engraved pattern book
based on firearms by Laurent Le Languedoc
(Pis. 119, 120). In the interval between the
presentation of the gift and the year 1685 we
can insert some dated guns and pistols — and
four further pairs of similar but undated pistols.
One of these pairs, two magnificent pistols in
the Livrustkammare (Inv. Nos. 4072, 4073.
PL 75 : 1, 2) transferred from the royal stables in
185 1, are signed 'Piraube aux galleries a Paris' 19 .
(Piraube continues to use the form 'galleries'
instead of 'gallerie' as on the weapons of 1673.)
The barrels are of silver gilt with diamond fore-
sights, the locks lavishly decorated with
engraving and scrolls in relief; the butt-caps
likewise and the stocks richly inlaid in silver
and carved with sprays of foliage and a
grotesque mask. Lock, side and thumb-plates
and butt-caps are of silver gilt. Identical mounts
are to be found on a pair of pistols in the Musee
de l'Armee in Paris (Inv. No. M 1725) by
another master 'Jean Reyniers a Paris' 20 . In
other respects these two pairs of pistols have
most of their decoration in common, the
division of the barrels into eight, sixteen sided
and round chambers followed by the round
section of the part of the barrel with sighting
rib along the top. The cocks are more cur-
vacious than ever and have the jaw-screw
heads rounded off still more, pointed and
tapering rear ends of the lock-plates, and in
keeping with this, tapering steels with rounded
edges. Finally we find a partiality for decoration
in relief and for movement.
Both these pairs of pistols should be dated
from between 1673 and 1680. Between them
and Simonin's pattern album comes a pair of
pistols by Trappier a Paris' in the Livrustkam-
mare (Inv. No. 5689, 5690). They belonged to
Count C. G. Oxenstierna of Sodermore (1656-
87) 21 . Then there is another pair in the same
institution (Inv. No. 12/24) which belonged to
Charles XI and is signed Trappier et Monlong
a Paris' (PL 75 13, 4) 22 .
The forms shown in Simonin's collections of
engravings are very closely associated with the
firearms of the 1670s, but the details are more
delicate and rhythmic. This later variant in
style evolved from the previous one, certain
details being eliminated and new ones added,
while minor changes were made in those
retained.
The slenderness and elegance that distinguish
the designs on Simonin's pattern plates are
also to be found on the weapons of the same
100
Plate 87.
France, Paris.
Beginning of eighteenth
century.
Gun by Dutrevil of Paris; Dresden, Gewehrgalerie 730.
Plate 88.
1
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France (?)
a 1700.
Garniture of gun and pistol, one of a pair, by Daniel
Thiermay; Copenhagen, Tojhusmuseet B 1233-4.
Plate 89.
|S|
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.
France, Paris.
1716, 1718 and c. 1720.
Pistols, each one of a pair. 1, 4 and 5. By Le Hollandois of
Paris 1716. Liege, Musee d'Armes 5 116. 2 and 6. By Lang-
uedoc of Paris 171 8; Dresden, Gewehrgalerie 746. 3 and 7.
By De Crens of Paris ; Dresden, Gewehrgalerie 744.
Plate 90.
France, Paris.
1716 and 1720s.
1. Gun by 'Languedoc a Paris 171 6'; Kranichstein, Darm-
stadt, Jagdmuseum 238. 2 and 3. Gun by same master 1722.
4. Lock of gun by Languedoc of Paris. 5 . Lock of gun by
Bletterie of Paris. 2-5 ; Dresden, Gewehrgalerie 1276, 1289,
1308.
Plate 91.
France, Paris.
1721.
Gun by St. Germain of Paris 1721. From the Armoury of
the Grand Dukes of Saxony in Schloss Ettersburg.
Plate 92.
France, Paris.
Middle of eighteenth
century.
Firearms by 'Les La Roche aux galleries du Louvre a
Paris'. 1-3; Brussels Musee de la Porte de Hal 2653. 4>
Dresden, Gewehrgalerie 737 A. 5 ; Windsor Castle 262.
Plate 93.
France, Paris.
Middle of eighteenth
century.
Double barrelled pistol by 'Les La Roche aux galleries du
Louvre a Paris' ; Lofstad, Sweden.
Plate 94.
<3|^/, : ^RVNDB£^
2
■■■■Kit ill •
^.J^AiJLJmim
France, Paris.
a 1750 and a 1770.
1-3. Pistols, pair, by 'Les Rundberg, Svedois, a Paris
(the brothers Gustav and Peter Rundberg from Jonkoping);
Stockholm, Livrustkammaren 5257, 5259. 4. Gun by
'Croizier a Paris Cour Neuve du Palais'.
period. A gun by Laurent Le Languedoc in the
Livrustkammare (Inv. No. 30/10. PI. 78) corres-
ponds in so many respects with Simonin's
engravings, even as to the identity of some of
the ornament, that one may state that the
engraver had such a weapon as his prototype.
Le Languedoc undoubtedly made more elegant
weapons than this gun. It is rather coarse but
it provides a very interesting comparison with
the engravings. Certain details of ornament in
the latter, which would otherwise have been
difficult to understand, are explained by this
gun.
First the barrel is round with the longitudinal
sighting rib between the back-sight and fore-
sight and flat on the sides of the chamber. The
latter is ornamented in low relief. The same
treatment is to be found on Simonin's pattern
sheet '6' (PL 120:1). The lock is similar to those
on both the last mentioned pairs of pistols,
but more slender. The plate is narrower and
the curve of its lower edge longer and more
pronounced. A raised edge just begins to
appear on lock-plates at the beginning of the
1670s. This becomes more and more marked.
In the middle of the 1680s it is omitted at the
fore end of the lock-plate. Instead the front
edges are bevelled. This is characteristic of the
great majority of flintlocks from the mid 1680s
onwards. The tip of the steel is decidedly bent
forward and develops a small lump on the
front. Lock-plate, cock and steel are chiselled
in low relief, and a lobate leaf is substituted
for the turned spring-finial which was so dis-
tinctive of the immediately preceding period.
Lobate leaves also appear on the fore ends of
the trigger-guards and on the fore-sights.
Manifest evidence of the urge for movement is
the design of the tang of the butt-plate. It has
become a coiling serpent angrily biting a
boldly profiled ornament (cf. PL 78 :6). This is a
consistent feature. It is forecast on the gun by
Le Couvreux in the Tojhus Museum just
mentioned and is consistently used from the
1 680s onwards until the serpent disappears in
the next period and the ornament is designed
otherwise.
Another new feature is the duplication of
the butt-heel, or more correctly the redesigning
The Classical Louis XIV Style
of the toe of the butt in keeping with the heel,
and the growth of a short broad tail on either
side of the butt. The Livrustkammare gun by
Le Languedoc is an example (PL 78:5). An
identical design is shown on sheet '5' of
Simonin's pattern album (PL 119:2). The
identity extends to the low relief ornament
surrounding the tails that are inlaid in the
stock. New too, is the acanthus ornament, also
in low relief, which decorates both sides of the
stock, between the rear ramrod-pipe and the
lock, and the side-plate respectively. It can be
interpreted as the translation into metal of an
ornament formerly carved in wood. It has its
equivalent on number '8' of the pattern sheets.
The same ornaments around and behind the
rear ramrod-pipe and on both sides of the bar-
ral tang can also be seen. These, however,
might just as well or, perhaps preferably, be
carved in the wood.
The Livrustkammare gun by Languedoc has
a side-plate (PL 78:3) designed as a crowned
escutcheon (Palatinate) with two supporters.
These develop into elegant scrolls ending in
dragon's heads. This type also occurs on the
pattern sheets in the same delicate form. But
the serpent coiling the entire length of the side-
plate, or the 'bridge' with thin spreading spirals
and grotesques were the more popular forms.
In comparison with the pattern of 1670s how-
ever, this design (PL 78:3) is delicate and
graceful.
The thumb-plates developed in the same way
as the side-plates. The profile of the ramrod-
pipes has become still further pronounced even
to the point of clumsiness, a form they retain
as long as the convex forms survive.
It should finally be mentioned that the butt,
seen from the side, is of arched form: this
became more and more common. Seen from
above it has a bulging form. This is usual but
was not invariably so (cf. PL 78:5, 6).
In addition to another album by the same
Claude Simonin and his son Jacques for the
year 1693, invaluable documents for illustrating
the evolution of the classical style are available
in a number of dated weapons by Bertrand
Piraube.
The series includes the following weapons:
101
Flintlock
Louis XIVs gun 1679, Pauilhac collection
(Paris); pistols 1681, Musee d'Armes (Liege),
Nos. 1367, 1 368"; Louis XIVs de luxe gun
1682 (PI. 76), Windsor Casde, No. 425";
pistols 1685 (PI. 134:19), the Brahe-Bielke
Armoury at Skokloster; pistols 1685, the
Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm, No. An 24 ; pistols
1688 (PL 80:1, 2, 6), the Tojhus Museum,
Copenhagen, Nos. B 982, B983 25 ; gun 1689,
the Jagd Museum in Kranichstein at Darm-
stadt, No. 29 5 26 ; pistols 1690 (PI. 80:3, 7),
Windsor Castle, Nos. 495, 496"; gun 1693, the
Jagd Museum in Kranichstein, No. 236 26 ;
pistol 1694 (PI. 80:4, 5, 8), Gewehrgalerie (Dres-
den), No. 736; pistol 1694, the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, Nos. 32, 75, i33 28 ;pistols 1715,
the Louvre, Paris, Nos. 7534, 7535.
The locks of all these weapons are convex in
form. In this series by one master the transition
from the 1670 forms comes with the two pairs
of pistols of 1685. The barrels on the firearms
of 1679-82 have chambers divided into an
eight, a sixteen and thirty-two sided portion and
also a round sector bordered by rings (cf. PI.
71:1,3) followed by the remaining length of
the barrel. This round part of the chamber
has in the case of the pistols of 168 1 a fiat along
the top, which is interrupted by the ring
bordering the main length of the barrel, and
continues along it. From 1685 the barrels are
round with a longitudinal sighting rib and
flattened sides to the chamber.
The only barrel in Simonin's album of 1685
is also divided up in this manner. On the
pattern sheets of 1693 there are examples of
this, of an eight, sixteen sided and round
chamber, as well as an entirely round one. It
is extremely doubtful if this last type was
manufactured in the central French area.
In both the albums the jaw-screw heads are
drop shaped, rather clumsy and often some-
what conical. The type is also characteristic of
the Piraube firearms of 1685. The jaw-screw
heads of the earlier weapons are flatter at the top.
The gun of 1679 and 1682 still have a
straight butt-plate tang, the pattern sheets of
1685 and 1693 consistendy coiling serpents.
The pommels of the pistols become clumsier in
the 1680s.
The side-plates are not consistent, but it
can be established, from surviving weapons
and engravings, that side-plates with delicate
sparse ornament are typical of French flindock
arms, with convex locks, of the last two decades
of the seventeenth century.
If the dated Piraube material now presented
were homogeneous it would be possible to
draw several conclusions from it. This, how-
ever, is not the case. The gun of 1679 is a good
utility weapon of outstanding and elegant
workmanship but lacking luxury features.
This is also the case with the pistols of 168 1 in
Liege. The Louis XIV gun of 1682 in Windsor,
on the other hand, is a most magnificent
weapon with elaborate chiselled decoration on
barrel, lock and mounts as well as profuse silver
inlays on the stock. This induced Gottfried
Semper to mention this gun above all others
as an example of good decoration of weapons 30 .
The two pairs of pistols of 1685 at Skokloster
and in the Hallwyl Museum are ordinary
weapons of a good standard. So too are the
Tojhus Museum pistols of 1688, whereas the
pistols of 1690 in Windsor rise to the highest
luxury class. The pistols of 1694 in the Gewehr-
galerie, Dresden, are lavishly decorated, and
the pistols of 171 5 in the Louvre again are
very richly embellished.
These last mentioned pistols can primarily
be regarded as an example of isolated manu-
facture in a style which no longer corresponded
to current fashionf.
Now that the main oudines of evolution
have been made clear by this dated series of a
single master we can compare undated arms by
other gunsmiths. Among the many possibilities
for the 1680s there are two de luxe guns by
Gruche of Paris. One is in the Bavarian
National Museum (Inv. No. 13/588. PI. 77:1 ) 31 ,
the other in the Kusthistorisches Museum,
Vienna (Waffensammlung No. A 1674. PI.
77 :2) 32 , also a garniture of a gun and a pair of
pistols signed by Chasteau of Paris in the
Tojhus Museum, Copenhagen (Inv. Nos.
B 960-62. PI. 79)", and still another gun by
the same master in Kunsthistorisch.es Museum,
Vienna (Waffensammlung No. A 1759) 34 . A
gun by 'Le Hollandois a Paris' with signed
102
barrel and lock in the Musee de l'Armee of
Paris (Inv. No. M 601. Detail, PI. 81-6) 38 ,
dated from the 1690s. A very elegant gun in
the Gewehrgalerie, Dresden (Inv. No. 735. PI.
81 :i-5) 38 , with the lock signed 'A Paris par le
Languedoc' dates from about 1700. From
approximately the same period a pair of very
beautiful pistols by Piraube in the same
Gewehrgalerie (No. 739) can be dated. They
are precursors of the pistols of 171 5 and still
testify to the master's unimpaired power.
We can now summarize the ideas which we
have thus acquired of French flindock weapons
from the 1660s to about 1700.
Three stages can be distinguished. The
boundary line between the first and the second
stage lies not later than at 1673. That between
the second and the third is established by
Simonin's first pattern album of 1685. The
convex forms of the locks dominate entirely in
the first stage. These arms are comparatively
slender. From then onwards they become
increasingly clumsy, reaching a peak in the
1680s and then becoming less so at the turn of
the century. About the close of the 1660s the
rear part of the lock-plate is still broad and
terminates in a projecting, blunt finial. The
steel has a fairly blunt contour truncated and
rounded at the top. A raised edge is added on
the lock-plates at the beginning of the 1670s.
It is omitted at the front end of the plate in the
mid 1 680s. In 1685 the uppermost point of the
steel is pressed forward forming a small lump
on the plate. The heads of the cock-screws are
small and tall as long as the lock-face is convex.
The jaw-screw heads first acquire the contour
of a more or less outward-curved cone: then
about 1685 they again become more conical
and inversely drop shaped. The minor chiselled
details — the volutes of the cocks, the shaped
profile and the lobate leaves of the steel springs
and the correspondingly complex treatment
of the trigger-guards — are superseded towards
about 1670 by simple forms. Thus simpler and
earlier forms were preferred to more elaborate
ones which were more difficult to manufacture.
Lobate leaves reappear on steel-springs and on
the ends of the trigger-guards in the 1680s.
Tangs attain their full length on butt-plates
The Classical Louis XIV Style
and butt-caps already by the close of the 1660s.
In the 1 670s these tangs on the guns are straight.
In 1685 they have become spirals, usually in the
form of serpents. From the end of the 1660s
the butt-plates of the guns are attached by two
screws instead of three. A coiling serpent or
dragon designed in high relief is often the main
element in the side-plates. They usually point
towards the hindmost lock-screw. During the
1 660s the side-plates are flat and inset flush with
the stock. In 1673 they were raised in relief.
In the 1670s the elements of the side-plates are
rather coarse. In the 1680s and 1690s the forms
are delicate and wide apart. The profiles of the
ramrod-pipes become more pronounced and
clumsy during the 1660s and 1670s. This
clumsiness prevails while the locks are convex.
There is always a rear ramrod-pipe. The thumb-
plate will first be found in the form of an
engraved ornament or a plaque with engraved
coat of arms inlaid in the stock. The evolution
of the thumb-plate keeps pace with that of the
side-plate. Thus in 1673 we have thumb-plates
in relief and in 1685 thumb-plates with the
same delicate ornament as the side-plates.
The butts of the guns become long, narrow
and triangular with a distinctly rounded heel
and neck as early as the close of the 1660s.
Walnut root is used as a rule for stocks of fine
quality weapons. A concave 'impact side', an
'arch', appears already in the 1670s. This
becomes more common during the two final
decades of the century. A straighter butt-end
also occurs though always with a distincdy
rounded heel. Seen from behind the butts have
been widened considerably, especially at the
foot, in comparison with those of the earlier
1660s. In the 1 6 80s the butts look stuffed or
inflated. Towards the end of the century the
butt, when seen from behind, becomes approxi-
mately oval in form with a tendency to taper
off into a point at the toe.
Of the carved decoration of the stocks that
at the rear ramrod-pipe attracts attention. At
the end of the 1660s it is an 's' shaped groove
with raised edges, open in front and proceeding
backwards from the ramrod-pipe. In 1673 the
groove has disappeared but the edges remain
embellished with volutes. The ornament is
103
Flintlock
subsequently split up more and more and
embellished with foliage as are the trigger-
guards and steel springs. These ornaments are
usually executed in metal. On very richly
embellished arms silver inlay is sometimes
substituted.
During the last quarter of the seventeenth
century the French style sets its stamp entirely
on flindock manufacture in Europe. It is
actually during this period that this manufac-
ture spreads on a large scale both in the produc-
tion of sporting guns and for military purposes.
Boeheim considered that the craftsmen and
artists who sought a livelihood abroad after the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685
constituted an important factor in spreading the
manufacture of the flintlock 37 . This statement
should perhaps be checked. The problem
requires further research 38 .
We have seen how the Netherlands were a
centre of flintlock manufacture in the middle
of the seventeenth century, to such an extent
that it is difficult to decide whether certain
features should be regarded as French or
Netherlandish, and that France in many
instances was inspired by, and borrowed from,
her northern neighbour 39 . Two decades later
the roles were exchanged; this was a natural
sequel to Louis XIV's victories and, among
other events, the destruction of Maastricht.
Thereafter the French style had the monopoly
in Dutch gunmaking. In 1692 De la Feuille and
Pieter Schenck published pattern albums with
plates engraved after Simonin's original illus-
trations of 1685 but with new title pages
(PI. 122:1). It can be established, however,
that French predominance had set in even
earlier. Information on gunmaking fashion in
Amsterdam in the 1680s can be acquired from
the arms made by the Pomeranian Pieter
Starbus 40 who had moved up to Stockholm.
The most elaborately embellished of these is a
set of a gun and a pair of pistols in the Copen-
hagen Tojhus Museum (Inv. Nos. 934-36. PI.
82:1, 2) signed on barrel, lock, stock and
mounts 41 . This shows that its master wished to
demonstrate his talent in all branches of gun-
making. Ordinarily a craftsman takes pains to
do so on one occasion only — when he is making
his masterpiece. In this case a desire to show
his skill to the Swedish authorities and primar-
ily to the king, with whom decision as to his
future rested, may have been his motive. The
presence of this garniture particularly in
Copenhagen, the capital of the country of
Charles XI's father-in-law and brother-in-law,
supports the supposition that it is the 'fusil and
pair of pistols of his workmanship' 42 that the
Swedish envoy at the Hague brought home in
1684. Comparing the set with Louis XIV's
de luxe gun by Piraube in Windsor Castle (PI.
76) I consider that it might very well date from
1684. It has a great deal in common with
Simonin's engravings, but still more with the
Windsor gun. The lock of the gun bears the
signature 'Fecit Piere Stahrbus' without, that
is, indicating that the master lived in Amster-
dam, where his oldest child was christened in
1678. The French form of his christian name is
appropriate on the weapon.
There is another gun signed 'Starbus a
Amsterdam' in the Lowenburg at Cassel (Inv.
No. W 1298), where it may have been received
with the articles inherited from King Frederick
I of Sweden. It resembles the gun in Copen-
hagen but is simpler. In certain details, such as
the plain engraved lock-plate, it is somewhat
more old fashioned. The gun which Starbus
presented as a gift to Charles XI after his
arrival in Stockholm is now preserved in the
Livrustkammare (Inv. No. 133 1. PL 82:3)".
It is quite typical of the French fashion of the
1 6 80s in the style of Le Languedoc and
Simonin. It is also signed Amsterdam.
Knowledge of the classical Louis XIV style
in gunmaking was also introduced in Germany
by Simonin's pattern sheets, undoubtedly in
the original, but also copied and published by
Johan Jakob von Sandrart. The circumstances
that his album Neues Biichlein Unterscbidlicher
Stuck und Zirahten Buxenmacher Arbeit (PI. 122:2)
was published in Nuremberg, and that the
prototype is Simonin's album of 1685, enable
us to date the appearance of the publication
between that year and the year of von Sandrart's
death, 1697, or the beginning of 1698 44 .
Another edition copied from the same original,
engraved by Heinrich Raab, was published in
104
The Classical Louis XIV Style
Nuremberg by David Funck (cf. p. 149, fig. 5).
Both these pattern books undoubtedly supplied
a need and left their mark. There is evidence
that there was a direct French influence on
German gunmaking even earlier than the
reign of Louis XIV. A member of the gun-
smith family of Moritz of Cassel signed three
guns and a pair of pistols in the French style of
the 1 670s. They are now preserved in the
Tojhus Museum, Copenhagen (Nos. 891-95).
According to the inventory of Det Kongelige
partikulaere RMStkammer two of these guns
belonged to Landgrave Charles of Hessen. His
coat of arms and initials are on the thumb-
plates 48 .
Boeheim has called attention to the part
played by Armand Bongarde of Diisseldorf at
an early stage in introducing the French style
into German gunmaking 44 . The gun of Duke
Charles Leopold of Lorraine (1643-90) in the
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (Waffen-
sammlung A 1636) 47 is a good representative
of French style in the i68osj.
A third centre of production of flintlock
weapons in an entirely French style was
Dresden. The gunsmith Andreas Orttel (Erttel)
worked there at the close of the seventeenth
century and the beginning of the eighteenth.
He was one of the court gunmakers and was
admitted into burgher ship in 1692 48 . A gun, a
magnificent piece of the highest class in purely
French style (PL 83, 84) which had long been
in the family of the Counts Morner, probably
represented his best work. This weapon,
materially of extreme value, and historically
most interesting, was lost when the manor-
house of Halbonas in the province of Soderman-
land was destroyed by fire in June 1934. The
signature 'Andreas Erttel a Dresden' was
inscribed in gold lettering on the breech of the
round barrel decorated in relief and 'Erttel' on
the lock below the steel spring. The nearest
equivalent to this precious treasure is Louis
XIV's de luxe gun by Piraube in Windsor (PL
76). It was on a par with it in richness but
maybe not in fineness of detail. The two guns
show such great similarity in several details,
for example, the butt, silver inlay work and the
thumb-plate, that one is inclined to suppose
that Erttel had studied in Paris. If this should
not be the case, we must assume the existence
of drawings which both masters used. The
French royal crown, surmounting the portrait
of Louis XIV in relief on the gun at Windsor,
surmounts on Erttel's thumb-plate the arms
of Poland engraved in a cartouche (cf. PL 76:5
and 83:2). The coat of arms of the Electorate
of Saxony is seen in a cartouche on the lock-
plate, though without a crown (cf. PL 84:1).
This gun of Augustus the Strong, for the
arms indicate that he was its owner, must be
dated from 1697 at the earliest, when Augustus
became king of Poland. If we bear in mind
that the heraldic coats of arms are engraved on
cartouches which could easily be altered for
this purpose, that the crown of the Polish king
differs in appearance from that of the French on
the thumb-plate 50 , that this Polish crown
would have been expected in 1697 or later, and
that the gun distinctly bears the impress of the
French style of 1680, we must conclude that it
should be dated earlier than the Polish crown
indicates. The long pointed toe of the butt
nevertheless denotes that it could date from
the close of the seventeenth century.
Walentin Rewer worked in the same style
and in the same town as Erttel from the year
1703 51 . A pair of pistols in the Livrustkammare
(Inv. Nos. 5687, 5688) 52 confirms what has
been said regarding the style.
As regards Berlin we can note a de luxe
garniture by Demrath in the Zeughaus which
belonged to King Frederick I of Prussia
(1701-13). Binder dates it from about 1710 53 .
Judging on stylistic grounds it must be older,
but a retarded style can of course be found so
far away from its source. There is evidence of
this in manufacture in Denmark as well as
Sweden, where French forms of the close of
the seventeenth century still determined fire-
arms design in the 1710s and 1720s.
In England the manufacture of flintlock
arms after French prototypes in the classical
Louis XIV style soon develops into a distinct
national type§. In Italy the national style was so
firmly developed that the Italian flintlock
weapons are distinctive from the outset and
remain so. A good deal more could be added
105
Flintlock
about this and also about the transformation of
the classical Louis XIV style in other flintlock
weapons made outside France, but we desist in
order to revert to subsequent evolution in
France.
Editor's Notes
* Deverre's Christian name was Pierre, a fact
which makes Dr Lenk's suggestion more
likely. He was a Huguenot and came to
England some time after 1685 but before
1692.
I Another pair of pistols, signed Piraubefec,
without reference to his logement, appear
to date from about 171 5, but are in a
manner that recalls an earlier period. These
are now in the Pasold Collection, Langley,
England.
I In spite of his name, Bongarde was not of
French birth. He was born in the village of
Suchteln, near Viersen.
§ For information concerning the introduc-
tion of the Louis XIV style to England,
see J. F. Hayward: 'Pierre Monlong',
Vaabenhistoriske Aarbeger, Vol. VIII, 1956,
p. 104 ff.
Notes to Chapter Nine
1. Dahlberg, Svecia antiqua et hodiernal. New
edition 1920-24. Pp. 39, 40.
2. List of the Refle collection at Sturefors
drawn up in 1846 (by Count Axel Bielke),
at Sturefors.
3. Extract from inventory at Sturefors. ms. at
Sturefors.
4. h,ivrustkammarinventarium 168). (Zacharias
Renberg's inventarium 1686.) P. 257. No. 3.
Palace Archives. Livrustkammaren. Vdg-
ledning 19 21. P. 91. No. 724.
5 . Cf. Lenk, 'Tva bossor av Thuraine and Le
Hollandois i Tojhusmuseet'. {Vaabenhistor-
iske Aarboger I. Pp. 1 3-24.)
6. Suede 1672-88. Histoire des negotiations,
Feuquieres's correspondence, reports to
Louis XIV. Archives du Ministere des
Affaires Etrangeres, Paris.
7. Livrustkammarinventarium 1683. (Zacharias
Renbergs inventarium 1686.) Pp. 236-71.
Palace Archives.
106
8. Ibid. Pp. 253-55. Nos. 1, 3-6. Livrust-
kammaren. Vdgledning 19 21. Pp. 85, 87, 88.
Nos. 686, 687, 700-2, 704.
9. Ibid. Pp. 238-69. Saddles Nos. 1, 2, 6, 9,
10, 11. Livrustkammaren. Vdgledning 19 21.
Pp. 89-91, 99. Nos. 711, 712, 715, 718, 722,
792.
10. Guiffrey, 'Logements d'artistes au Louvre'.
{Nouvelles archives de fart francais. T. II.
P- 73-)
11. Brice, Description de la ville de Paris. T. I.
P. 104.
12. Guiffrey, 'Logements d'artistes au Louvre'.
{Nouvelles archives de fart francais. T. II.
P. 130.)
13. Boeheim, Meister der Waffenschmiedekunst.
Pp. 168, 169.
14. 'Livrustkammarinventarium 1683. (Zacharias
Renbergs inventarium 1686.) P. 256. No. 10
Palace Archives. Livrustkammaren. Vdg-
ledning 1 9 21. P. 85. No. 685.
15. Smith, Det Kongelige partikulaere Rust-
kammer I. Pp. 40, 41.
16. Livrustkammarinventarium 168}. (Zacharias
Renbergs inventarium 1686.) P. 256. No. 9.
Palace Archives. Livrustkammaren. Vdg-
ledning 19 21. P. 106. No. 865.
17. Smith, Det Kongelige partikulaere Rust-
kammer\. P. 33. PI. 33.
18. Bottet, Monographie de far me a feu portative
des armees franfaises de terre et de mer de iji8
a nos jours. P. 7.
© m
Pftuniw
Barrel marks. 1. On gun by Des Granges
of Paris 1668 (PI. 66:1). 2. On pistol by
same master 1668 (PI. 66:2). 3. On gun
by De Foullois le jeune of Paris, c. 1670
(PL 70:1). Livrustkammaren. Vdgledning
19 21. P. 179. Mark No. 415.
19. Livrustkammaren. Vdgledning 1921. P. 89.
No. 713.
20. Robert, Catalogue des collections composant le
Musee d'Artillerie en 1889. T. IV. Pp. 309,
310.
21. Livrustkammaren, Vdgledning 19 21. P. 99.
No. 791.
The Classical Louis XIV Style
zz. Ibid. P. 90. No. 716:1.
23. [Falise], Musee a" Armes. P. 243. No. E j 26.
24. Laking, The armoury of Windsor Castle.
European Section. Pp. 129, 130. L. gives both
1672 and 1682 there as the date of the gun.
The latter is correct.
25. [Claudelin], Katalog ofver vapensamlingen i
Hallwjlska huset. P. 67.
26. [Boeck and Christensen], Katalog over den
historiske Vaahensamling paa Kejbenhavns
Tojhus. P. 83. No. A 15 11.
27. Communicated by H.R.H. Prince Louis of
Hessen.
28. Laking, The armoury of Windsor Castle.
European Section. P. 143. [Gardner], Exhibi-
tion of chased and embossed steel and iron work
of European origin. P. 35. PI. 63.
29. Grancsay, 'The bequest of Guilia T.
Morosini' ^Bulletin of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art 1939. P. 17). Further data
communicated to the writer.
30. Semper, Der Stil in den technischen und
tektonischen Kunsten oder praktische Aestetik.
II. P. 549, note.
31. Jacobs, 'Die Kgl. Gewehrikammer in
Miinchen'. (Zeitschrift fur historische Waffen-
kunde. Bd. VI. P. 169. Abb. 12, 14.)
32. Boeheim, Album hervorragender Gegenstdnde.
P. 16. PI. XLV. Grosz and Thomas,
Katalog der Waffensammlung in der neuen Burg.
Schausammlung. Pp. 207, 208.
33. [Boeck and Christensen], Katalog over den
historiske Vaabensamling pa Kejbenhavns
Tojhus. Pp. 61, 84. Nos. A 582, 1522. Smith,
Det Kongelige partikulaere Rustkammer. Pp.
51, 52. PI. 31,32.
34. Boeheim, Album hervorragender Gegenstdnde.
P. 15. PL XLV. Grosz and Thomas,
Katalog der Waffensammlung in der neuen
Burg. Schausammlung. P. 237.
35. Robert, Catalogue des collections composant le
Musee d'Artillerie. P. 129. R. dates this gun
to the close of the eighteenth century.
This is obviously absurd.
3 6. Ehrenthal, Fu'hrer durch die Konigliche Gewehr-
Galerie %u Dresden. Pp. 43-45. III. P. 44.
37. Boeheim, 'Die Luxusgewehr-fabrication in
Frankreich im XVII und XVIII. Jahr-
hundert.' {Blatter fur Kunstgewerbe . Jahrg.
1886. Heft. VIII. Pp. 38,39.)
38. In London we find a member of the
Monlong gunsmith family who has signed
a pair of de luxe pistols in best French style.
They were exhibited at the Burlington Fine
Arts Club in London in 1900. (Gardner),
Exhibition of chased and embossed steel and iron
work of European origin. 1900. P. 35. PL 43.
As to northern Europe reference is invited
to the following papers : Lenk, 'Flindastill-
verkningens inforande i Sverige. Person-
historiska bidrag.' (Rig. 1935.) Same writer,
'Flintlastillverkningens inforande i Sverige.
Armemodellerna.' (Karolinskaforbundets drs-
bok 1937). Otto Smith, 'Flintelaasens Ind-
forelse i den danske Haer.' (Vaabenhistoriske
Aarboger II, b. 1938.)
39. Cf. Lenk 'Zur Frage der hollandischen
Buchsenmacher'. (Zeitschrift fur historische
Waffen- und Kostumkunde. Bd. XIII. Pp.
239-41.)
40. Cf. Lenk, 'Flintlastillverkningens inforande
i Sverige. Personhistoriska bidrag.' (Rig.
1935. P. 147 ff.)
41. [Boeck and Christensen], Katalog over den
historiske Vaabensamling paa Kojbenhavns
Tojhus. Pp. 64, 85, Nos. A 701, A 1545.
Smith, Det Kongelige partikulaere Rust-
kammer I. Pp. 43, 44. No. 86. PL 31.
42. Malmborg, Stockholm bossmakare. P. 183.
43. Eivrustkammarinventarium 168). (Diarium
1696. P. 30. No. 13.) Palace Archives.
Livrustkammaren. Vagledning 1921. P. 87.
No. 699.
44. Berliner, Ornamentale Vorlage-Bldtter
Textbd. P. 80.
45. [Boeck and Christensen], Katalog over den
historiske Vaabensamling paa Kejbenhavns
Tojhus. P. 64. Nos. A 707-9. P. 85. No.
A 1550.
46. Smith, Det Kongelige partikulaere Rust-
kammer. I. P. 37. Nos. 57, 40. Nos. 65, 64.
No. 159.
47. Boeheim, 'Die Luxusgewehr-Fabrication in
Frankreich im XVII und XVIII. Jahr.
(Blatter fur Kunstgewerbe 1886. P. 36).
Same author, Meister der Waffenschmiedkunst.
Pp. 21, 22. Same author, 'Uber einige
107
Flintlock
Jagd waffen und Jagdgerate des Aller
Hochsten Kaiserhauses' {Jahrbuch der Kunst-
historischen Sammlungen des A. H. Kaiser-
bausen. Bd. V. Pp. 102-5. Taf. XIII: figs. 1,
3-5). Weyersberg. 'Der Biichsenmacher,
Eisenschneider und Graveur Hermann
Bongard (d. 1727) und seine Familie.'
{Zeitschrift fur historische Waffen- undKostum-
kunde. Bd. X. P. 232.)
48. [Grosz and Thomas], Katalog der Waffen-
sammlung in der neuen Burg Schausammlung.
P. 232.
49. Ehrenthal, 'Fuhrer durch die Konigliche
Gewehr-Galerie zu Dresden. P. 99. Holz-
hausen, Regestan iiber die Dresdner Biich-
senmacher.' {Zeitschrift fur historische Waffen-
und Kostumkunde. Bd. XIV. P. 188.)
50. Cf. Rudolph, 'Die polnische Konigskrone
Augusts des Starken im Bilde' {Berliner
Mun^bldtter No. 302. Pp. 207, 209).
5 1 . Ehrenthal, Fuhrer durch die Konigliche Gewehr-
Galerie %u Dresden. P. 105 .
52. Livrustkammaren. Vdgledning 1^21. V. 105.
No. 854.
5 3 . Binder, 'Neuerwerbungen des Berliner Zeu-
ghauses.' (Zeitschrift fur historische Waffen-
und Kostumkunde. Bd. X. P. 94.) 'Sitzungs-
berichte der Berliner Mitglieder im Zeug-
haus. (Ibid. Bd. XL P. 242.)
108
Plate 95.
France, Paris.
1750-60S.
1. Child's gun by 'Les Le Page a Paris'; Brussels, Musee de
la Porte de Hal 785. 2 and 3. Double barrelled gun by
Puiforcat of Paris. 1756-57; Stockholm, Hallwyl Museum
A 3 1 -
Plate 96.
France, Paris.
c. 1760
1
Child's gun by Bouillet a Paris; Paris, Louvre M. R. 435.
Plate 97.
France, Paris.
c. 1770.
1-2. Gustavus Ill's (?) double barrelled gun by 'Chasteau
a Paris Rue de Sts. Peres'; Stockholm, Livrustkammaren
39/70. 3. Gun by 'Brifaud a Paris Rue St. Honore'; Stock-
holm, Livrustkammaren 19/7.
Plate 98.
France, Paris.
c. 1770.
3
Details of the gun on PL 97:3.
CHAPTER TEN
The Berain style.
French flintlock firearms of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
French industrial art and handicrafts in
the last decade of the seventeenth century
and the beginning of the eighteenth
century show the strong influence of the
designer, Jean Berain. This also applies to
gunmaking. Among the engravers, Nicolas
Guerard and De Lacollombe produced pattern
books for gunsmiths in his style (cf. PL 123,
124, 127, 128). The former claims that he works
under the direction of the most skilled gun-
smiths in Paris ('sous la conduite des plus
habils Arquebuziers de Paris'). The latter
works after 'Languedoc a Paris'. This is
mentioned on some of his sheets. One is dated
1702, another 1705. The year of Guerard's
album is not known. It appears to be more or
less contemporary with De Lacollombe's earliest
engravings. This agrees with Guilmard's state-
ment that Guerard worked in Paris in 1670-96.
Thieme-Becker gives 17 19 as the year of his
death 1 . In any case there existed in Paris about
1700 a style of flintlock firearm which differs
considerably from that dealt with in the preced-
ing chapter. The prototypes for the designs
were taken from the middle of the seventeenth
century; flat forms with shaped profiles, carved
ornament between the pan and the cock as well
as a sunk rear part were reintroduced. Large
cock-screw heads decorated in relief, volutes
on the cocks (though only in exceptional cases)
and longer drop shaped jaw-screw heads, short
tangs on the butt-plates and side-plates. The
latter became just V shaped, curved straps
between the lock-screws, symmetrically de-
signed around a central medallion. The pans
became angular. The steels were also angular
and abruptly cut at the top and cock-jaws were
angular. The ramrod-pipes became polygonal.
There are, also, forms taken over from the
immediately preceding period, such as the
barrels divided into different sections, steels
with tips curved forward, the rear of the lock-
plates very elongated, chiselled decoration at
the rear ramrod-pipes, pierced side-plates
executed in low relief with thin elegant forms,
silver inlay-work on the stocks, relief decora-
tion on the barrels, lobate leaves on steel-
springs and trigger-guards. There are in addi-
tion similar leaves on the tangs of the butt-
plates. This is only to be expected inasmuch as
109
Flintlock
the styles at first ran parallel. There are thumb-
plates both of the old kind and the new, a
convex medallion surrounded by metal inlay.
One can compare the Corfitz Trolle pistols in
the Tojhus Museum (PI. 69:4). The chiselled
boss of the pistol butt-caps has become smaller
and taller thus giving the cap a conical appear-
ance. This also indicates a reversion to the
earlier forms (cf. PL 54:3 and 117). Moreover,
the earlier chiselled cartouche round the decor-
ated butt-cap heads has, as a rule, disappeared.
This is usually surrounded by a narrow ring,
while outside the ring the ornament was no
longer confined in a cartouche.
The lock-plate is sometimes pierced by the
sear-screw about 1680. This becomes more and
more common towards the close of the century
and standard from about 1700 onwards.
Although convex and flat forms occur at the
same time no sets comprising arms of both
kinds are recorded. The pattern sheets invari-
ably represent locks with flat forms. The convex
ones appear only as survivals, such as a turned
ramrod-pipe in Guerard, a convex pan and
steel in De Lacollombe, but these are excep-
tions. Even among the extant weapons there
are transitional forms, as for instance a pair of
pistols in the Livrustkammare with locks and
barrels signed, 'Ch. Doucin a Paris' (see
Editor's Notes) (Inv. Nos. 4080, 408 1) 2 They
correspond on the whole with the late seven-
teenth century pieces dealt with in the
previous chapter. But the clumsy pommels
are rounded off and have the framework of
ornament mentioned above. Another novelty
in these pistols is the form of the ramrod-
pipe which looks forward to the later
angular forms. A pair of magnificent pistols,
otherwise characterized by convex forms, by
Piraube in the Gewehrgalerie, Dresden (Inv.
No. 739) 3 , has cylindrical ramrod-pipes with
pointed terminals, in which a trend towards
angular forms can be recognized.
The period of transition from convex to flat
shapes is suggested by the rather heavy propor-
tions of the gun and pistol butts in Guerard
and De Lacollombe. They closely resemble
those we know from the 1680s and 1690s. But
a pair of dated pistols in the Dresden His-
torisches Museum (PL 85:1, 4, 7) gives us an
exact year for such arms. The master is Piraube
again. He has signed the pistols on barrels and
lock 'Piraube aux galleries a Paris', with the
year 1696 added on the barrels. Still another
pair of pistols in the same style and by the same
gunsmith dated 1699, formerly belonged to the
Zeughaus, Berlin (Inv. No. 09.124. PL 85 :z, 3,
5 , 6). Finally there may be mentioned a gun, also
by Piraube, in the Jagd-Museum at Kranichstein
(No. 264. PL 86). It is also dated 1699 4 .
All these weapons illustrate the new style.
Although they are so close to one another in
time a development from the earlier to the later
is discernible. The barrels are in perfect
agreement as regards disposition and decora-
tion and continue the features of the 1680s.
The pistols of 1696 still have the clumsy
pommels, but on the pistols of 1699 they are
already more elegant. The former have pierced
side-plates of the type we know from a previous
period. The latter have side-plates in the form
of a 'rib' between the lock-screws formed by
two volute-like ornaments flanking a medallion.
The pistols of 1696 have the cock-screw
designed more like the chiselled screw-heads
with cruciform groove of the Thuraine and
Le Hollandois style. In 1699 the cock-screws
have only a single groove, a pattern that is
maintained in the future. In both instances the
barrel-tang is finished off straight at the back.
Finally, the ramrod-pipes on the older pair of
pistols are cylindrical with longitudinal and
pointed oval finials, those of the later ones are
facetted. The material assembled thus points to
the 1 690s as a transitional period from the
classical Louis XIV style to that of Berain.
Guerard's album, some sheets from De Lacol-
lombe, the two dated pairs of pistols, and the gun
in Kranichstein with flat surfaces by Piraube
denote a first stage.
Before proceeding further it may be as well
to consider a group which has a wider distri-
bution than France and which belongs to the
first stage of the flat surfaces. Its chief charac-
teristic is the lavish use of brass for lock- plates,
mounts and at times, also for barrels. The
group is well represented in the Tojhus
Museum, Copenhagen, with a pair of pistols
no
The Berain Style
by Philippe Selier (Inv. Nos. 1248, 1249) and
two garnitures of a gun and pistols, one with
Daniel Thiermay's marks and signature (Inv.
Nos. B 1233-B 1235. PL 88), the other signed
by Louis Servais (Inv. Nos. B 1243-B 1245).
Boeheim states, without quoting his source,
that Selier had worked in Paris 5 . An 'L. Servais
Orleans' has signed a gun in the Moscow
Armoury (Inv. No. 7099) 6 . Whether the same
master also made the pistols in the Tojhus
Museum must remain an open question. As to
date Christensen assigns the gun by Thiermay
and the Servais garniture to the reign of
Frederick IV, consequently between 1699 and
1730, but the Selier and Thiermay pistols to
that of Christian VI, i.e. the period 1730-46 7 .
The inventory of Det kongelige partikulaere
Rustkammer of 1775 states, however, that the
Servais gun was delivered to the armoury on
16 March 171 1. Smith dates it from about 1710 8 .
A target rifle with a flintlock in the Rotunda,
Woolwich, with the coat of arms of the Austrian
family von Hohenfeldt bears the signature
'Philippe de Sellier Pan 1734' (Inv. No. IV:
124) 9 . Two guns in the Musee de l'Armee,
Paris (Inv. Nos. M 569, M 570) are likewise
signed 'Philippe de Selier' 10 . Perhaps Philippe
Selier and Philippe de Sellier are one and the
same person. The similarity of the names is the
only reason given for this assumption (see
Editor's Notes).
A very similar gun by 'T Thiermay' with the
signature on the lock is in the Rijksmuseum in
Amsterdam (Inv. No. 3287). It is defective;
the ramrod-pipes and the thumb-plate are later
additions. A pair of pistols in the Livrust-
kammare, signed 'Gille Damour' (Inv. No.
1 5/1 17) also belong to the group. No place of
manufacture is given.
Ehrenthal dates nine guns by Thiermay 'in
Paris'* with the same marks as the Copenhagen
arms from the period 1720-30 11 .
Such a marked retardation in style, as so
late a manufacture would imply, does occur
but one must feel sceptical of such late dating
of arms belonging to the group. The com-
parison to the French material from the 1690s
definitely prompts one to assign the entire
group to the period around 1700. The date on
the gun in the Rotunda will doubtless be
explained on closer studyf.
First among the Copenhagen arms come,
typologically, the pistols by Philippe Selier
(Inv. Nos. B 1248, B 1249) with tall bevelled
edges to the lock-plate and cock and also a
small grotesque mask on the cock-screw head.
There is a mark on the chamber with the
initials 'p s' beneath an open crown stamped
three times. The side-plate is rather coarse and
composed of grotesque monsters placed sym-
metrically round a mask below the head of the
rear lock-screw.
The lock-plates on the Servais garniture of
the Tojhus Museum are quite flat. The section
behind the cock is also on the same level as
the rest of the plate. The cock too is flatter than
those of the Selier pistols and attached by a
screw. Its large slightly convex head permits
no doubt as to the prototype. The more so as
the grooves which cross one another at right
angles and the small ornaments in relief at
their ends distinctly recall Thuraine and Le
Hollandois weapons of the 1650-60S. The gun
is slightly clumsier than the arms of the 1680s,
for example: that in the garniture by Chasteau
of Paris in the Tojhus Museum (PL 79).
Both these guns have otherwise much in
common. The chiselled ornament on the
barrels of the Servais gun is, however, lower,
lighter and farther apart. That on lock, butt-
plate and trigger-guard has the same charac-
teristics, but the cartouche of the thumb-plates
surrounded with trophies and prisoners and
crowned with helmets is of the same kind as
the thumb-plates of the late seventeenth
century. The carved decoration of the stock is
more graceful on the Chasteau gun than on the
Servais gun. This is coarse and strong with
lobate leaves at the rear ramrod-pipe. The
turned ramrod-pipes are almost without excep-
tion emphasized towards the middle. The
highest points of the profile of those of the
Servais garniture are at the ends. They are
moreover polygonal.
The Thiermay garniture in the Tojhus
Museum is, on the whole, of the same character
as that by Servais. In some details it is more
advanced. Its lock-plate coincides with what
in
Flintlock
has been said above of the distinctive features
of the Berain style. The form of the cock is
influenced by the V curve of the Berain style
with, however, a straight middle section which
we recognize from the pattern sheets of Guerard
and De Lacollombe. Another novel feature is
the butt which is flat underneath. It is presented
in a restrained form as a plane with profiled
edges terminating forward in a broad, lobate
leaf; the tips of which meet the metal leaves of
the trigger-guard. The neck and the point of
the comb are accentuated with carved foliage.
All of the arms belonging to the group have
broad barrel-tangs which expand backwards
(cf. PI. 88:5). Where there is a back-sight it is
formed either by a hollow filed in the barrel-
tang or as a semi cylindrical groove with a
foliage finish on each side at the rear end of the
barrel. The fore-sight is remarkably long. The
barrels are of thick material. This is necessary
as the casting is of bronze or brass, though the
iron barrels also show the same peculiarity.
Although the barrels of French flintlock
weapons are generally very thin at the muzzle,
there are examples of French barrels of heavy
casting. These coarse barrels need not therefore
be inconsistent with the assumption that they
are of French manufacture. Dating can be
checked by comparison with a garniture in the
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Waffen-
sammlung (Inv. Nos. A 1639, A 1640/ 1) 12 ,
which belonged to Landgraf Ludwig Wilhelm
von Baden, d. 1709. It is dated in the most
recent catalogue of the museum as about 1702
and provides great similarities with the group
in Copenhagen. The garniture is probably
German. The auction catalogue of the armoury
in Schloss Ettersburg gives reliable information
of German manufacture of this type of weapon.
Several of the guns included in it as belonging
to the group bear the signature of J. J. Behr
and one gun (No. 52) is signed 'J. H. Jung a
Sulli' (Suhl) 13 .
We have already established the fact that
there was a development in the first stage of
the period in French gunmaking which begins
with the reintroduction of the flat shapes at the
close of the seventeenth century. This may
primarily be characterized as abandoning the
forms of the late seventeenth century in stages ;
first of all the convexity, then the clumsiness.
A typical feature of the flintlock of the later
seventeenth century is that the lower edge of
the lock-plate follows a downward line. This
also applies to the firearms of 1696 and 1699
just mentioned. This shape is again met with
in Guerard and on the oldest of De Lacol-
lombe's engravings. This relic from the begin-
ning of the seventeenth century was soon to
disappear, judging by a pair of pistols signed
'Mazelier a Paris' and dated 1708. They were
sold by auction at the Galerie Fischer in Lucerne
in June 1937 14 . With this we reach uniformity
in the designing of French flintlock weapons
that can be followed up with dated arms into
the 1 720s and with undated ones still further.
The dated ones that can be cited are : a pair of
pistols of 1 71 6 by 'Le Hollandois a Paris' in the
Musee d'Armes in Liege (Inv. No. 5 116. PI.
89:1, 4, 5) 15 , a gun of the same year by 'Langue-
doc a Paris' in the Jagd-museum in Kranich-
stein at Darmstadt (Inv. No. 238. PI. 90 :i) 16 , a
pair of pistols of 171 8 by the same master in the
Gewehrgalerie, Dresden (Inv. No. 746. PI.
89:2, 6) 1 ', a gun of 1721 by 'St. Germain a Paris'
from the armoury in the Ettersburg, later in
the Jakobsson Collection, Stockholm 18 (PI. 91)
and finally a gun of 1722 by 'Languedoc a
Paris' in the Historisches Museum, Dresden
(Inv. No. 1276. PI. 90:2, 3) 19 . There can be
added to this material a pair of pistols in the
Historisches Museum, Dresden (Inv. No.
EX 12), signed 'Alegre a Paris' which can be
dated not later than 1725 on account of the
coat of arms on the thumb-plate of Louis,
vicomte d'Aubusson, due de la Feuillade et de
Roannes, d. 1725 20 .
The uniformity in this group of dated
weapons finds expression in the division of the
barrels by a long, metal ridge on the upper
side, and side-plates on the chambers as well
as spreading barrel-tangs. The locks are always
flat with a countersunk rear point, simple V
shaped cocks, large slighdy conical cock-screws
with a single groove and drop shaped jaw-
screw heads. Trigger-guards and butt-plates
terminate in leaves. The side-plates are pierced
and are made up of scrolls grouped round a
112
The Berain Style
medallion. The ramrod-pipes are angular. This
angularity is at times merely indicated by
engraving on the cylindrical *ramrod-pipes,
which are reinforced with rings at both ends.
The pommels of the pistols are smaller on
arms dating towards the 1720s; the pommel
boss is raised so that its edge forms a pro-
nounced ledge. Furthermore, the spur of the
steel is larger and curves upwards. At the end
of the seventeenth century a finial begins to
develop on the stock from the back of the
flat border surrounding the lock and side-
plates, and a broad, rounded ledge projects at
the front. This finial continues to grow during
the earlier half of the eighteenth century, but
the ledge is biggest about 1720, becomes
smaller after that and then disappears. Finally,
French flintlock weapons become considerably
lighter and more elegant during the beginning
of the eighteenth century.
Starting from this basis other arms can be
correctly dated. As the number of surviving
weapons of this period is large it will be
sufficient to give a few examples. A number of
those in the Historisches Museum, Dresden,
provide suitable material for study. A very
beautiful gun by 'Dutrevil a Paris', signed on
the barrels and lock (Gewehrgalerie No. 730.
PI. 87) 21 , belongs to this period. The curved
lock-plate suggests early dating; there is
nothing against its being dated from about
1720. A pair of extremely beautiful pistols by
'De Crens a Paris' in the same collection
(Gewehrgalerie No. 744. PI. 89:3, 7)" are of
the same period. Their butt-caps with a
Minerva head on the oval boss are an excellent
illustration of what has been said above. The
thumb-plates bear the Polish arms of Rawicz
under a French ducal coronet. The mark of the
Parisian barrelsmith, Nicolas Pierron, stamped
on the underside of the barrels provides con-
firmation of the dating. According to Magne de
Marolles he died in 1735 23 .
In the history of the west European flint-
lock the evolution up to the death of Louis XIV
is the most interesting phase. It is this evolution
that has served as the main subject of the
present thesis. The succeeding period can be
dealt with very briefly here.
Louis XIV's death in 171 5 does not involve
any sudden break in French gunmaking. The
acute economic crisis during the subsequent
decade after the fall of Law and the death of the
sovereign undoubtedly affected the volume of
production considerably, but the style con-
tinued to be just the same. An analysis of De
Lacollombe's patterns of the 1730s (cf. p. 150
and Pis. 128:2, 129) shows that arms at this
time were lighter and slenderer. This implied a
continuation of the earlier trend. Particularly
obvious is the distinctly arched lower contour
of the gunstocks which runs out into the
pointed butt-toe. The gun-butts once more
have the pierced decorative plate which we
know from Simonin's engravings and Le
Languedoc's gun of 1680 in the Livrustkam-
mare (PL 78). There it helps to give an effect
of symmetry but here it develops from the
pointed toe of the butt. Along with the earlier
pierced type of side-plates we now have solid
plates, with more or less elaborate profiles
chiselled with bright ornament or planes
against a punched ground.
The continued existence of this style can be
followed to about the middle of the century.
Among the earlier weapons we may note a gun
by 'La Roche a Paris', with signature on barrel
and lock, in Count Magnus Brahe's collection
in the Brahe-Bielke Armoury at Skokloster.
From the coat of arms of the French king on
the thumb-plate and the crowned mirror
monogram of the sovereign on the butt-plate
the gun can be identified as a personal weapon
of King Louis XV of France. The butt-plate
is bent round at the foot and the sides, the
profile corresponding to that on the pattern
sheets of the 1730s. According to Guiffrey,
Jean-Baptiste La Roche was granted a 'brevet
de logement' on 21 August 1743, after Le
Hollandois junior 24 . If he had had this 'brevet'
when Louis XV's gun was made, the signature
would undoubtedly have included 'aux gal-
leries'. The gun can therefore serve as an
example of the persistence of the style of the
late seventeenth century into the 1730s. Nearly
contemporary is a pair of guns in the His-
torisches Museum, Dresden, one (No. 1308.
PL 90:5) is signed by 'Bletterie a Paris', the
"3
Flintlock
other (No. 1289. PI. 90:4) by Languedoc 28 . As
regards the former, it is to be noted that the
barrel bears the mark of the Nicolas Pierron
mentioned above. The gun should therefore
be dated from the mid 1730s, the period of
Pierron's death. The Languedoc gun has an
irregular trigger-guard which Jooks as if it
were copied from a German prototype. The
style is represented in the Livrustkammare by
a pair of pistols with locks signed 'Bourdiec a
Paris' (Inv. Nos. 1760, 1761) 26 . The marks on
the silver mounts of the pistols give the period
October 1 744-1 October 1750 for their manu-
facture. This shows that firearms in the Berain
style could still be made in Paris at the middle
of the eighteenth century. The barrels are of
special interest from their being of Damascus
construction, a technique which became
common in France during the second half of
the eighteenth century 27 .
Further evidence of this slow evolution of
fashion is given by a gun and a pair of pistols
by 'Les La Roche aux galleries a Paris'. The
former is in the Musee de la Porte de Hal in
Brussels (Inv. No. 2653. ^- 9 2:I- 3)> tne latter
in the Historisches Museum, Dresden (No.
737 A. PL 92:4). The gun closely resembles the
more elaborate of De Lacollombe's engravings,
although no single detail has been taken
directly from them. The period of both gun
and pistols can be fixed between 21 August
1743, the date of the grant of the 'brevet de
logement' to one of the La Roches in the
Louvre, and 1769, the year of his death 28 .
The gun is still in the Regence style with some
Rococo features. The lock could have been
taken direct from the pattern sheets. It differs
slightly in its decoration, but the composition
and ornament are the same. The full signature
is on the lock. The barrel has the signature
'La Roche a Paris' inlaid in gold on the upper
side of the chamber. The latter is round
with flat sides, channelled and bordered by
ring mouldings front and back. A silver ring
back-sight with small wings on a shaped foot
is set in front of the chamber. The stock is
carved at the ramrod-pipe and has carved
leaves at both ends of the lock and side-plates.
Prototypes of these details are also to be found
in De Lacollombe. New features are the
chequered grip on the fore-stock, the elongated
flange, which precedes the very thin small of
the butt, and a high gently curved comb. This
continues a characteristic feature of French
guns. Other features include the slides by which
the barrel is attached to the stock instead of
pins and the ramrod-pipes formed like elon-
gated barrels. On these the former angularity
is replaced by fluting. The thumb-plate is let
into the small of the butt with a ducal coat of
arms in relief.
The pistols in the Historisches Museum,
Dresden, are further advanced and show
certain Neo-Classic features in their ornament.
This enables us to date them slightly later than
the gun just mentioned. As to the barrels; the
earlier octagonal type of chamber has been
reintroduced along with a sixteen sided and a
fluted, practically round portion, finished at
the front with a round ring moulding. This
octagonal treatment becomes more common
during the later eighteenth century, as does the
fluting on chambers, which are otherwise
angular or round. The pistols by Les La Roche
in Dresden have solid side-plates decorated
with engraving.
The steels of flintlocks from the second
quarter of the eighteenth century become
increasingly heavy, the spurs larger and up-
wards curving. Another detail which developed
during the same period is the finial carved in
the stock behind the lock and side-plates. It
became longer by the middle of the eighteenth
century and detached so that it is often only
connected with the border by a thin ridge. A
third detail which is re-modelled in the middle
of the eighteenth century is the trigger-guard,
this is now divided at the rear. Examples are to
be found on a gun signed on the lock-plate by
the same 'Les La Roche aux galleries du Louvre
a Paris', in the armoury of Windsor Castle (Inv.
No. 262. PL 92 :5) 29 . Cylindrical ramrod-pipes
and a round jaw-screw head with a long neck
are also to be noted.
A double-barrelled pistol signed by the same
master with fully developed Rococo forms is
preserved at Lovstad in the province of
Ostergotland (PL 93). It has a triangular pan
114
The Berain Style
and a slightly clumsier head on the jaw-screw
than the arms listed here. The pistol should be
dated from the middle of the eighteenth
century. The lock-plate is still flat with a ledge
at the back. The same applies to a pair of very
elegant pocket pistols in the Livrustkammare
(Inv. Nos. 5257-5259. PI. 94:i-3) 30 . One is
signed 'Les Rundberg', the other 'Svedois' on
the spurs of the breech-blocks, and both 'Les
Rundberg a Paris' (the brothers Peter and
Gustav Rundberg from Jonkoping, Sweden)
on the lock-plates. The pistols can be dated
from the brothers' stay in Paris from 1747-51
and the death of the second one on his way
home in 175 1 31 . The pistols must therefore
date from the years 1747-51, probably nearer
the latter.
Examples could be multiplied many times
over. It will suffice, however, to mention two
more guns with fully developed Rococo orna-
ments and flat-faced locks. The one by 'Cazes
arquebuzier du Roi a Paris' belongs to the
Windsor Casde Collection (Inv. No. Z53) 32 , the
other by 'Croizier a Paris Cour neuve du
Palais' (the signature likewise on the lock, on
the barrel 'Croizier a Paris') was handed to the
firm of Le Page of Paris for sale in December
193 1 (PI. 94:4). Both of these have a pan which
is almost triangular in section, a clumsy steel
and a steel spur with a pronounced curve
backward and upward and also narrow curved
cocks with elongated heads on the jaw-screws
and small heads on the cock-screws. The
trigger-guards are divided behind, the butts
have characteristic conical swellings on the
heels and round the lower butt-plate screw. The
small of the butt has now become long and
thin, the flange long broad and smoothly
grooved. This makes the comb of the butt high
and thin. The pan is fitted with a bridle (cf.
p. 99), a feature not unusual at this time.
Croizier's gun bears the mark 'No. 2' stamped
twice in gold on the chamber of the barrel
maker, Nicolas Le Clerc. Magne de Marolles
states that Le Clerc began to use this mark
about 1768. This gives a terminus a quo for the
two guns 33 .
The pistol at Lovstad by Les La Roche
coincides in several respects with some of De
Marteau's pattern sheets. One of these is
dated 1743, two others 1744 and 1749 (PI. 130).
The style is the most exuberant Rococo. The
sheet dated 1749 shows a flat lock-plate,
elongated and pointed at the back, a curvaceous,
rather thin cock, and a pan profile that has not
yet become fully triangular. In date the pistol
should be placed between De Marteau's
pattern sheets and the two guns just mentioned.
The form of the jaw-screws and steels is
identical, as is the ornament, carved in the
stock behind the lock and detached from the
lock-plate border apart from a very thin con-
necting link. The wood follows the edge of
the lock-plate forming a flat border. The
contours of the pan, lock-plates and cocks
differ.
From these details, to which we can add the
shape of the butt, we may date a child's gun
in the Musee de la Porte de Hal in Brussels
(Inv. No. 785. PI. 95:1). Its lock-plate and
barrel are signed 'Les Le Page a Paris'. The
arms of the Dukes of Orleans are included in
gold inlay of the chamber. The gun is only
98.2 cm. in length and its calibre a good
12 mm. It must consequendy have been made
for a child, probably Louis Philippe Joseph,
known by the name of Philippe Egalite which
he assumed during the Revolution. He was
born in 1747 and would have been about the
right age for the gun in 1760, when it was
probably made. What interests us most is that
the lock is convex in form and similar in style
to those dating from the close of the seven-
teenth century, while the side-plate is designed
in relief as an asymmetrical cartouche, develop-
ing into foliage of a characteristic Rococo
design.
The richness characteristic of De Marteau's
pattern sheets is also found on another child's
gun with the lock signed 'Bouillet a Paris'
(PI. 96). It is preserved in the Louvre 34 . Its
chiselled decoration is truly magnificent not
only on barrel and mounts, but also on the
lock and inlay work with thin silver wire in
the stock. The gun is said to have been a gift
from the city of Paris to Prince Louis, son of
the Dauphin Louis (d. 1765). Whether this
refers to the prince who died in 1 761, or to the
"5
Flintlock
later Louis XVI, the arms on the thumb-plate
are those of 'les enfants de France' and the gun
dates from prior to the death of the Dauphin
Louis. This dating is also arrived at by com-
parison with the Lovstad pistol and the two
pistols with flat locks mentioned in connection
with it. This delicate jewel can be compared in
its composition with a double barrelled gun
by 'Puiforcat a Paris' (signature on barrel and
lock) in the Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm (Inv.
No. A 31. PL 95 :2, 3) 35 , which can be dated by
the silver marks from the years 1756-57. This
has not yet acquired the characteristic swelling
around the lower screw of the butt-plate to
such a degree and the lock reminds one most
of that on the 'Les Le Page' gun in Brussels.
The child's gun in the Louvre has, like the
contemporary flat locks, a recessed rear end, in
this case decorated in relief. Both the conical
heel and the swelling round the lower screw of
the butt-plate are fully developed. Both this gun
and that in the Hallwyl Museum have an addi-
tional novelty as regards the part of the trigger-
guard behind the finger-rest. This is raised
from the stock and looped round terminating
in the usual leaf finial. The comb of the butt
has almost assumed the high form typical of
the close of the century.
A pair of guns in the Livrustkammare are
very closely related to those just mentioned of
about 1760. One, signed on barrels and locks by
'Chasteau a Paris Rue de St Peres' is a double
barrelled fowling piece. It was acquired from
the Lamm Collection at Nasby (PL 97 : 1, 2). The
thumb-plate is composed of the lesser arms
of Sweden surrounded by ornament. Below
the barrels is Nicolas Le Gere's mark and an
oval mark with a heraldic fleur-de-lis 36 , the
former once on each barrel, the latter twice.
The convex lock is very simple and resembles
the forms of the seventeenth century except for
such details as the spur of the cock, the steel,
and the finish of the lock-plate, which with its
rectangular edges is typical of the whole
eighteenth century. As a double barrelled gun
with soldered barrels and rib, the direct pre-
cursor of the modern double barrelled gun,
this gun deserves special notice. The rib is still
quite short; it merely corresponds to the
116
chambers and constitutes a grooved extension
of the back-sight fitted to the barrel tang. The
barrels are further held together by rings, the
first made in one piece with the rib, the second
connected with the front ramrod-pipe 37 .
Such double barrels were first manufactured
in Paris by Jean Le Clerc (d. 1739) m x 73 8 - The
idea was brought from Saint Etienne where
they had been made some years previously.
Guidance in dating this double barrelled
gun can be found in the Livrustkammare No.
19/7, with the barrel signed 'Brifaud a Paris',
and the lock and side-plate 'Brifaud a Paris
Rue St Honore' (Pis. 97:3, 98). The decoration
on the barrel of this gun is in gold inlay, not in
relief. The style is Rococo with Neo-Classic
features. The recessed rear end of the lock-
plate is pinched, as on most of the locks from
the period around 1770 and into the 1800s.
The head of the jaw-screw is globular in shape.
The mark of the Parisian barrelsmith Jean
Titeux is stamped below the barrel. Titeux died
in 1770 38 , which provides, if not an exact,
nevertheless an approximate terminus ante quern
for its manufacture.
Since both these guns correspond to forms
which were still current about 1770, it is
tempting to conjecture that the Chasteau double
barrelled gun formed part of the hunting
equipment used by Gustavus III of Sweden
during his visit to the French court in the
winter of 1770-71. It was there that he received
the news of the death of his father, Adolphus
Frederick.
The Rococo had such a long span of life in
the manufacture of French flintlock arms that
the Louis XVI style had no chance of assert-
ing itself. The Livrustkammare nevertheless
possesses a child's gun by 'Le Sage a Paris' (Inv.
No. 1550. PL 99:1, 6) 3 °, the trigger-guard of
which has Neo-Classic forms. It is very like the
guns just mentioned in the same institution.
The small of its butt, however, is chequered
like the Empire weapons and the marks of the
barrelsmith Le Clerc are stamped on the top of
the barrels. This only became the custom in
Paris towards the middle of the 1770s 40 . The
presence of the cheek-pad should be noted as
a novel feature. The lock is rounded in shape.
Plate 99.
France, Paris.
1780-1810.
1 and 6. Child's gun by Le Sage of Paris; Stockholm,
Livrustkammaren 1550. 2. Frederick Augustus Fs Wender
gun by Le Page of Paris. Gift from Napoleon I in 1808;
Dresden, Gewehrgalerie 1891. 3-5. Gun by 'Le Page A
Paris Arqer De L'Empereur'; Dresden, Historisches Mus-
eum Z. K. 664/1.
Plate ioo.
France, Versailles and
Paris.
1800-20.
Guns by Nicolas Boutet. 1. 1801; Metropolitan Museum
of Art 36. 5 8. 2 and 4; Jacobi Collection Stocksund (Sweden).
3 and 5 ; Brussels, Musee de la Porte de Hal 31 51.
i 2
France.
Late half of sixteenth
early seventeenth cen-
turies.
Patterns for wheel-lock decoration, i and 2. Androuet Du
Cerceau's school; Ex. Berlin, Staatliche Kunstbibliothek
O.S. 1326. 3. By 'm.n.' the monogrammist ; Ex. Vienna,
Staatliches Kunstgewerbemuseum.
Plate 1 02.
France, Metz.
c. 1620.
Jean Henequin, patterns for decoration of wheel-lock
weapons; Ex. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, Cabinet des
estampes, Vol. Le 24.
Plate 103.
JHniquli *-%***—)
France, Metz and France.
c. 1620. 1630-40S.
Jean Henequin. 1. Pattern for flintlock cock (?) for wheel-
lock weapons. From same series as the patterns on PL 102.
3. Pattern for flintlock cock (?); Ex. Hamburg, Kunstge-
werbemuseum. 4. Pattern called 'La Guere'; Ex. Paris,
Bibliotheque Nationale, Cabinet des estampes, Vol. Le 24.
Plate 104.
France, Metz.
Louis XIII's wheel-lock gun by 'Jean Henequin a Metz
1621'; Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum 1733.
Plate 105.
Western Europe.
End of sixteenth and
beginning of seventeenth
centuries.
1. Matchlock musket; Kasteel Doorwerth, Het Leger
museum, sal Willem III, No. 3. 2. Wheel-lock pistol;
London, Wallace Collection 840. 3. Wheel-lock pistol by
Matteus Nutten of Aachen; Copenhagen, National Museum,
Dept. II 21760.
Plate 1 06.
Germany ( ?)
Early seventeenth
tury.
Box with bone inlay; Paris, Musee de Cluny 21366.
cen-
It looks as if these round-faced locks were
common after the middle of the eighteenth
century. Locks with flat shapes still occur at the
same time.
French flintlock manufacture experienced a
last brilliant period during the first Empire.
Gunsmiths with names one recognizes from
the ancien regime worked in Paris, and in Ver-
sailles the manufacture was headed by the fam-
ous Nicolas Boutet. Two guns by Le Page can
be mentioned as examples of Parisian manufac-
ture. One is a Wender with most costly furniture,
a gift from the Emperor Napoleon to King
Frederick I of Saxony on 8 October 1808
during the Congress at Erfurt (Dresden,
Gewehrgalerie Inv. No. 1891. PL 99:2), the
second a single barrelled gun signed 'Le Page
A Paris Arqer De L'Empereur' on the lock
(Dresden, Historisches Museum Inv. No. 664/1.
PI. 99:3-5). The latter is the earlier. It must,
however, be dated from after 18 May 1804,
when Napoleon I declared himself Emperor of
France. Many features of the eighteenth
century can be recognized on this gun, although
much has been changed. The barrel is round
with an eight sided chamber, has a back-sight
and is attached by slides. The lock is flat in
form with a recessed rear end, the cock with a
pronounced curve so that its middle section is
horizontal when the lock is at half-cock. The
steel-spring is very clumsy and has a marked
notch at the foot of the front. The bridle of
the pan is coarse and turned definitely upwards,
the spur of the steel curves upwards so empha-
tically that its point acquires a downward
trend. The steel-spring is longer, as is the front
end of the lock-plate. The stock forms a flat
border around the lock-plate. Behind the lock
a palmette shaped leaf is carved. The small of
the butt is now shorter and coarser, but the
flange is still long and smoothly hollowed. The
comb of the butt forms, in profile, a slightly
upward curved line, and the underside of the
butt curves in the opposite direction. The butt-
heel was already pointed at an earlier stage. Now
that part of the back below the lower screw of
the butt-plate, is filled out so that the toe has
become pointed and the entire butt-plate forms
a flat, inturned surface. The ramrod-pipes are
The Berain Style
short and clumsy with rings at the ends and in
the middle.
There were of course numerous gunsmiths
in Paris during this period. We mention only
Pirmet who signed a gun which is now in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art and is dated
1809 41 .
The arms to which Nicolas Boutet devoted
his main interest during the period of prosperity
of the Versailles manufacture are among the
most cosdy ever made in France. The earlier
ones possess the same characteristic features as
the single barrelled gun by Le Page mentioned
above. The French author Bottet has published
a work on Boutet and his production. He deals
in his text and illustrations with a number of
the de luxe weapons from the factory. They cost
their purchasers fantastic sums of money and
were also presented as national awards. As
specimens of this earlier manufacture can be
mentioned a rifle and a double barrelled gun
which are reproduced by Bottet under Nos.
37, 38 42 . Both were made during the Directoire
and belonged to one of its members, Reubell.
Bottet states that the sculpture in the stock
behind the extreme end of the trigger-guard,
which acted as a support for the hand in place of
the sling, originated from the famous 'directeur-
artiste' of the Versailles factory 43 . This addition
to the butt soon becomes bigger and bigger
and is to be found on Boutet's earlier guns in
varying form. Cheek-rests are also to be noted
on French arms from this period. The link
connecting the hook of the mainspring and the
spur of the tumbler is a novel feature. It helped
to reduce friction. Magne de Marolles says in
the editions of his book published in the years
prior to his death in 1792, that these chain-
locks were of recent construction 'dans ce
dernier temps' 44 . Such locks usually have a
friction roller on the upper arm of the steel-
spring and a waterproof pan. The latter was a
special form of pan devised to lead off rain
water (cf. PI. 100:5). It w * u De seen on tne
firearms signed by Boutet that the upper part
of the cock with the jaws is set at a more acute
angle in relation to the neck. This shape justifies
still more its description as 'col de cygne'.
Bottet also declares that Nicolas Boutet was
"7
Flintlock
the originator of the very curved pistol butts
and that this form became fashionable in the
year III, i.e. 1794 45 . It may be remembered in
this connection that a very curved pistol butt
was usual in England throughout the eighteenth
century, and that the duelling pistols which had
been developed to such perfection in England
at the close of the century had such butts, eight
sided, heavy barrels, friction roller, waterproof
pan and only a screw washer instead of a side-
plate. The acute angle between the head and
neck of the cock can be observed on English
military arms of the close of the eighteenth
century. In view of the marked English influ-
ence on French culture, for example in dress
fashions, at the close of the eighteenth and the
beginning of the nineteenth century there is
every reason to ask whether the prototypes of
the new forms of firearms of the Versailles
factory should be sought on the other side of
the Channel 48 .
For knowledge of the arms manufactured by
Boutet it is sufficient to study the extensive
illustrations in Bottet's book La manufacture de
Versailles quoted above. We only illustrate
three weapons signed by Boutet which show
the evolution during the two first decades of
the nineteenth century. The top gun on PI. 100
is dated 1801 47 , the middle one (PI. 100:2, 4)
from the Jacobi collection, Stocksund, has
already acquired a more pronounced nineteenth
century character, whereas the bottom one (PI.
100:3, 5) represents the latest forms of French
flindock arms. This double barrelled gun is
signed 'N. Boutet a Versailles' on the barrels
and is preserved in the Musee de la Porte de
Hal, Brussels (Inv. No. 31 51). A mark on the
chambers with a fleur-de-lis stamped in gold
implies that the gun was manufactured after the
Restoration. But the signature also dates it
from the period after 181 8 when Boutet
following on the lapse of his licence and other
misfortunes fought an uneven struggle for his
business and his art in Paris 48 .
In general, French eighteenth-century flint-
lock arms do not possess the artistic and
mechanical worth of the preceding century.
New constructions did not appear until the
118
close of the century and they were perhaps
borrowed from abroad. As products of
industrial arts and crafts they display little
advance right up to the Revolution. After the
final brilliant period of the flintlock during the
Napoleonic Empire the leadership was taken
over by other countries, especially by England.
The flintlock was at the same time ousted by
the percussion lock.
When Louis XIV died, flintlock manufacture
based on French prototypes had already gained
ground practically all over Europe. In Spain
local types put up a successful resistance. But
in the Netherlands, England, Germany, Italy,
Scandinavia and Northern Europe, the French
fashion prevailed. In Germany Joh. Chr.
Weigel published an edition of Guerard's
pattern sheets in his own name. Among skilled
gunsmiths, e.g. J. A. Kock of Mainz, direct
French influence can be traced 49 . These coun-
tries, however, developed their own national
style in different ways. In Sweden the German
style derived from French sources was followed
along with the purely French fashion. Earlier
Swedish types give rise to variations which
render the study of the flintlock arms of the
Swedish eighteenth century interesting as well
as difficult 50 .
Editor's Notes
This important pair of pistols, in the
design of which Jean Berain had a part,
is fully discussed and illustrated by Dr. C.
Hernmarck; 'Daniel Cronstroms Gava till
Karl XI 1696', Livrustkammaren. Vol. 7.
P. 203.
De Selier (or De Sellier) was, in fact, a
Liege maker. A pair of pistols formerly
in the author's collection bore his name
with that of the town. Like Thiermay his
style owed much to the designs of Nicolas
Guerard.
* Thiermay was apparently a Liege maker
and either had a retail outlet in Paris or put
the spurious signature 'Paris' on his pro-
ductions to make them more saleable.
f This whole group of firearms is of Liege
origin — hence the difference in style from
The Berain Style
the more fashionable Paris made guns,
which were twenty years ahead. The dating
to the 1 720s is very probably correct.
Notes to Chapter Ten
1. Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der
bildenden Kiinstler. B. XV. P. 215.
2. Livrustkammaren. Vdgledning 1921. P. 90.
No. 719.
3 . Ehrenthal, Ftihrer durch die Konigliche Gewehr-
Galerie %u Dresden. P. 43.
4. Communicated by H. R. H. Prince Louis
of Hessen.
5. Boeheim, Handbuch der Waffenkunde. P. 658.
6. Opis moskovskoj oru^ejnej palati. V. P. 196.
7. [Boeck and Christensen], Katalog over den
historiske Vaabensamling paa Kjobenhavns
Tojhus. Pp. 65, 86 (Nos. A 715, A 716,
A 1560, A 1569, A 1573).
8. Smith, Det kongelige partikulaereRustkammer.
I. Pp. 24, 25. No. 16.
9. Official catalogue of the Museum of Artillery in
the Rotunda, Woolwich. 1934. P. 54.
10. Robert, Catalogue des collection composant le
Musee d'Artillerie. T. IV. P. 123.
1 1 . Ehrenthal, Ftihrer durch die Konigliche Gewehr-
Galerie %u Dresden. S. 81. Nos. 1835-43.
12. Grosz and Thomas, Katalog der Waffen-
sammlung in der neuen Burg. Schausammlung.
Pp. 237, 239.
13. [Binder], Grossher^oglich sdchsische Gewehr-
sammlung Schloss Ettersburg. Versteigerung
am 2. August 1927. Passim.
14. Grosse Auktion. Mobilia . . . Waff en . . .
Auktion . . . juni 1937 im Zunfthaus %ur
Meise in Zurich. P. 161. No. 2517. Tafel
XVII.
15. [Falise], Le Musee d'Armes. P. 241. No.
Ej2.
16. Communicated by H. R. H. Prince Louis
of Hessen.
1 7. Ehrenthal, Ftihrer durch die Konigliche Gewehr-
Galerie %u Dresden. P. 45 .
18. [Binder], Grossher^oglich sdchsische Gewehr-
sammlung Schloss Ettersburg. Versteigerung
am 2. August 1927. P. 6. No. 27.
19. Ehrenthal, Ftihrer durch die Konigliche Gewehr-
Galerie ^u Dresden. Pp. 43, 44.
20. [Aubert] de la Chesnay-Desbois et Badier,
Dictionnaire de la noblesse. T. I. P. 977. A
reservation must be made here for the
ducal coronet on the thumb-plate as this
seems to be very common in such a position
and decorates several non ducal arms.
21 . Ehrenthal, Ftihrer durch die Konigliche Gewehr-
Galerie %u Dresden. P. 43.
22. Ibid. P. 45.
23. Magne de Marolles, La chasse au fusil.
Illustration of mark.
24. Guiffrey, 'Logements d'artistes au Louvre'.
Nouvelles archives de Part franfais. II. P. 89.
2 5 . Ehrenthal, Ftihrer durch die Konigliche Gewehr-
Galerie %u Dresden. P. 68.
26. Livrustkammare. Vdgledning 19 21. P. 99.
No. 796.
27. Magne de Marolles, La chasse au fusil. Pp.
65-67.
28. Boeheim, Handbuch der Waffenkunde. P. 657.
29. Laking, The armoury of Windsor Castle.
European section. P. 84.
30. Cederstrom, 'Pistol- och stockmakaren
Peter Rundberg i Jonkoping'. Svenska
vapenhistoriska sdllskapets arsskrift, 1926.
Pp. 1-11. Livrustkammaren. Vdgledning
1921. P. 104. No. 846.
31. Malmborg, Stockholms bossmakare. P. 211.
32. Laking, The armoury of Windsor Castle.
European section. P. 81.
33. Magne de Marolles, La chasse au fusil.
P. 73.
34. Inv. No. M. R. 435. Barbet de Jouy,
Notices des antiquitets . . . composant le musee
des souverains. P. 179. No. 130.
3 5 . The Hallwyl Collection. Descriptive catalogue,
Groups XXXIV and XXXV. Pp. 294-97.
Illustrated in an accompanying volume.
36. Magne de Marolles, La chasse au fusil.
Illustration of mark and pp. 73, 74.
37. Ibid. P. 63, note.
38. Ibid. Illustration of mark.
39. Livrustkammaren. Vdgledningip2i. No. 825.
40. Magne de Marolles, La chasse au fusil. Pp.
74,75-
119
Flintlock
41. Grancsay, 'A presentation fowling piece'.
Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
1928. Pp. 246-49.
42. Bottet, La manufacture d'armes de Versailles.
P. 5 7 and unnumbered illustration.
43. Ibid. P. 45.
44. Magne de Marolles, La chasse au fusil. P. 36.
45 . Bottet, La manufacture d'armes de Versailles.
P. 42.
46. George, English pistols and revolvers. Pp. 68,
71 and 72. PL VII-XI. Greener, The gun
and its development. P. 100. (Duelling pistol
1789.)
47. Grancsay. 'A Versailles gun by Boutet,
directeur-artiste.' Bulletin of the Metro-
politan Museum of Art, 1936. Pp. 163-66.
48. Bottet, La manufacture d'armes de Versailles.
P. 35.
49. Gun, dated 1740, in Musee de la Porte de
Hal, Brussels. Inv. No. 2484.
50. Cf. Lenk, 'Notser kring nagra flintiasvapen
i Kulturen'. Kulturen, Arsbok 1938. Pp.
118-35.
120
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The decoration of French firearms
during the earlier half of the
seventeenth century
Dating by form is in itself an art-
| historical method. The word style has
often been mentioned on previous
pages and the decoration of firearms has in
some instances been given prominence. The
illustrations show that the better-quality fire-
arms can be accepted as examples of applied
art, some of a very high standard. Gottfried
Semper's complaint 1 that there was no adequate
art-historical study of the treasures of the arms
museums is now no longer fully justified. There
is nevertheless still some ground for it*.
Since the close of the nineteenth century art-
historical study has, however, been applied to
weapons. Amongst the earlier publications is
Hans Stocklein's book Meister des Eisenschnittes
in which the author treats a richly decorated
South German group of arms, and more
recently the contributions made by Post,
Klapsia and Thomas 2 to the history of arms as
a branch of the general history of art. Thomas
has studied the sources of the decoration of a
gun amongst engraved ornament. In doing so
he dealt with a subject very close to this
treatise 3 .
The originator of the art-historical treatment
of the branch of the history of arms covered by
this thesis is Wendelin Boeheim. In his article
'Die Luxusgewehr Fabrication in Frankreich
im XVII und XVIII Jahrhundert' quoted
above, in Blatter fur Kunstgewerbe, Vienna 1886,
and in Meister der Waffenscbmiedekunst this aspect
often finds expression. This is especially so in
the article in which Boeheim lists the various
pattern books for gunsmiths, and endeavours
to solve the question of the connection between
the patterns and the weapons. Research,
rendered possible by the greater availability of
engraved ornament collections, has led to
amendments of Boeheim's opinions, but one
cannot but admire his pioneer work.
This treatise cannot claim to change present
views on the development of style. The writer
hopes on the other hand that he has been able
to attribute the weapons and the designs in
accordance with the accepted system and also
to extend our knowledge of the relationship
between extant arms and engraved pattern
books.
The pattern books for gunsmiths are almost
121
Flintlock
without exception French or derive from
French originals. They begin as early as the
third quarter of the sixteenth century. Two
sheets with two wheel-locks each (PI. 101 :i, 2)
date from this period. They belong to a series
of patterns for door locks, keys, key hole
escutcheon, door handles, etc., which is repre-
sented both in the Bibliotheque Nationale,
Cabinet des Estampes, Paris (in volume 'Le 24')
and in the Staadiche Kunstbibliothek, Berlin
(O. S. No. 1326). This series belongs to the
larger number of pattern engravings attributed
on various grounds to Jacques Androuet
Ducerceau. They do not attain the elegance of
his manner even if the grotesques in them
resemble those in Ducerceau's series of small
sheets of 1550 4 .
The artist who executed these drawings had
no knowledge of firearms construction. Even if
we regard them as reversed the ornaments are
still upside down. It is at any rate clear that the
artist meant to represent French wheel-locks
and we thereby obtain definite proof that this
construction existed in the French sphere of
culture shortly after the middle of the sixteenth
century. This cultural sphere need not necess-
arily coincide with French political boundaries.
A comparison with the short gun with a French
lock in the Armeria, Madrid (Inv. No. K 62,
cf. p. 3 above) published by Hoopes shows
that the artist used this lock construction as his
basis. This in turn suggests its existence in the
French sphere of culture even before the middle
of the sixteenth century. On these sheets the
lock-plates terminate at the rear with monsters'
heads. This may be regarded in this case as an
influence of the grotesque style. But these
animal heads cannot fail to remind us of locks
dating from c. 1620 and before, and also about
the middle of the seventeenth century, which
we encounter in the north-east of France and in
the group decorated in relief (dealt with in
Chapter Six). The sculptural design of the
cocks reminds one of the form used by Jean
Henequin of Metz in the 1620s (cf. p. 32 and
Pis. 102, 103). All this may locate the designs
in the north-east of France and consequently
the Armeria gun as well. This would not be
surprising as the Madrid gun dates from the
reign of Charles V and this Emperor held
Burgundy as a hereditary possession. The fact
that the French wheel-lock could thereby be
located nearer the actual country of origin of
the wheel-lock would be a satisfactory result.
The stock of the gun in Madrid is, like German
arms, decorated with inlays of engraved horn
or bone. This also applies to the pistols in
the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Inv. No.
14.25. i433) B and the gun No. M 66 (p. 3)^ of
the Paris Army Museum. All provide evidence
of affinity to German gunmaking customs.
Mother-of-pearl and metal are added to the
vocabulary of decoration at the close of the
century. The former was used in France in
exceptional cases as late as the 1630s and 1640s"!",
as were also horn and bone. But metal, especi-
ally silver, becomes the dominant material at
an early stage and continues to be so.
The decoration of French wheel-lock arms
provides interesting examples of Classic fea-
tures. Some of these are of exacdy the same
kind as certain elements in the decoration of
the ceilings in the rooms dating from Henry
IFs period at Fontainebleau. The decoration of
French wheel-locks derives — one might perhaps
say principally — from German sources. This
decoration is characteristic of French firearms
for a long time ahead. In many cases the
technical execution is French in its superior
clarity and precision even if the ornament has
been borrowed from external sources.
Before proceeding further it is necessary to
remove Anthoine Jacquard from consideration.
Boeheim mentions him as the first French artist
to have engraved pattern sheets for gunsmiths'.
This is probably due to the wrong tide on the
back of volume 'Le 23' in the Cabinet des
Estampes, Paris, 'Arquebuserie par Jacquard'
and to Guilmard's statement that some designs
in this volume should perhaps be attributed to
Jacquard 8 . 'Le 23' does not contain any sheets
with gunlocks by this master. The title and the
year 1624 given by Boeheim still remain unex-
plained. For the time being Jacquard must be
omitted from the list of pattern engravers for
gunsmiths. This we do with regret because his
designs for sword hilts are of a high standard
both technically and aesthetically.
122
The decoration of French firearms during the earlier half of the seventeenth century
In Jacquard's place and considerably earlier
comes the unknown artist of the sheets just
mentioned. Immediately after him we must
place the monogrammist 'm n' whose only
known work is a sheet with a wheel-lock in the
Staatliches Kunstgewerbemuseum, Vienna (PI.
ioi:3) 9 . Details for a wheel-lock, cock, pan,
wheel-guide and some decoration are also
reproduced on a sheet marked 'La Guere' in
volume 'Le 24' in Cabinet des Estampes, Paris
(PI. 103:4).
Among the French engravers of gunsmiths'
patterns is Jean Henequin (cf. pp. 33-34). He
worked in Metz about 1620. A sheet signed by
him is in the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Hamburg
(No. O. 1905 1226. PI. 103:3) and there are six
in the Cabinet des Estampes, Paris (in volume
'Le 24'. PI. 102 and 103:1, 2) five of which give
details of wheel-locks and two cocks probably
intended for the earliest flindocks. Philippe
Cordier Daubigny also belongs to these earlier
French engravers of gunsmiths' designs.
The cock on the sheet signed 'La Guere' is
of so late a type that it can be dated from the
1630s if not later. It is not of great interest and
its artistic qualities are not such that it deserves
further space. It suffices to point out that the
decoration of the pan-cover derives from
Flemish ornament of the early seventeenth
century.
The monogrammist 'm n', on the other hand,
was a more experienced engraver though he
lacked the urge to raise his artistic talents to
any higher degree of refinement. In contrast
to the unknown sixteenth century engravers he
fully understood construction of the lock and
he illustrates distinctly a French wheel-lock of
the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century.
Of the large number of weapons with French
wheel-locks discussed in the earlier part of this
treatise extremely few locks have the same kind
of decoration as the sheet in Vienna. This
engraver on the other hand is clearly associ-
ated with the ornamentation of the stocks on a
group of pistols with French wheel-locks that
are to be found in several ancient armouries
and which seem to have been fashionable at
the beginning of the seventeenth century 10 . A
lavishly, but not particularly artistically, inlaid
matchlock musket No. 3 in the William III
Room in Kasteel Doorwerth at Arnhem,
Holland (PI. 105 :i) can be included in the same
group on account of the stock inlay. The
material is engraved horn or bone, pardy
coloured green. The surface is almost entirely
covered with flowers, leaves and small round
fruits. Among these are large plaques cut in
the shape of animals. The barrel-tang is sur-
rounded by larger plaques engraved with
leaves and flowers on coiling thin stalks. This
same decoration is to be found on the Livrust-
kammare pistol No. 1602 11 , on a very charac-
teristic pistol in the Wallace Collection No. 840,
formerly in the San Donato Collection (PI.
105 :i) 12 and on the pattern sheet in Vienna. It is
most distinct on the neck of the cock, in
particular on the part on which the lower jaw
slides, a part which is otherwise only decorated
in exceptional cases. Similar to this is the
arabesque on the margin of sheet by the
monogrammist 'm n\ Laking rightly dates the
pistol from about 1605. If we seek further
evidence for dating this group of weapons it
can be found on a knife in the Louvre dated
1608 (no number). The handle is inlaid in
brass in thin wire like stalks with tiny leaves, a
decoration which is also to be found on the
Livrustkammare pistols (Inv. Nos. 1 5 78, 1 5 79) 1 *
for example.
There are a number of stockmakers who
decorated objects other than gun and pistol
stocks, when they had the opportunity to make
use of their material and technique. A casket
in the Musee de Cluny, Paris (Inv. No. 21 366.
PI. 106) is an example. According to the
inventory it is German of the seventeenth
century 14 . There are similar caskets in several
collections 15 . The most important is that in the
Wallace Collection (Inv. No. 111:2): this is
signed 'fait en Massuuaux par Jean Conrad
Tornier Monsteur d'harquebisses. L'an 1630'.
Its decoration is typical as regards both
materials (mother-of-pearl, bone and metal)
and designs j.
Massevaux in southern Alsace was still a
German town in 1630. It is situated near the
upper course of the Moselle. On this river are
the towns of Epinal, Nancy and Metz, and on
123
Flintlock
the Meurthe, a tributary of the Moselle, Lune-
ville. All were centres for the manufacture of
arms from an early date. The decoration of
arms was general within this area, but inlay-
work of the same or a similar kind can also be
found in southern Germany, as on a gun of the
beginning of the seventeenth century in the
Livrustkammare (Inv. No. 473 2) 16 . Its stock is
signed by Hieronymus Borstorffer of Munich 17 .
The material of the inlays is chiefly bone,
horn, and mother-of-pearl. Tornier also used
metal. Similar ornament in silver inlay can be
seen on a pair of pistols in the National
Museum, Copenhagen (Dept. II, Inv. No.
21760. PI. 105 :3). They bear the mark of the
Aix la Chapelle master Matteus Nutt(en) (a
stag's head) 18 and the initials 'm n' on the
barrels. This ornament is characterized by
fixed centres surrounded by spirals.
In his sense of form the monogrammist 'm n'
is anything but French. A Gothic touch that
recalls the engravings of the master 'e. s.' is
expressed in the trailing arabesques rising
symmetrically from a Renaissance vase with
hunter, dog, game, and falcon. The decoration
of the lock-plate is, perhaps, even closer to the
Gothic by reason of its dense trailing orna-
ments with figure subjects. This kind of
ornament still survived at the middle of the
seventeenth century in Hendrik Janssen's
borders for the edges of dishes. We shall also
find that this style with its Nordic inspiration
still dominates within the area covered by this
treatise until the general break through of
Classical forms after the middle of the century.
The floral and foliage decoration on the
neck of the cock on the Vienna sheet is found
in very similar form on two engravings in a
series by an unknown Netherlands artist (PI.
107:2, 3) 19 of the beginning of the seventeenth
century. These ornaments cover a long, narrow
horizontal area bordered by a ribbon on the
upper edge of the engraving. The central
group on this engraving, and on other sheets
from the same series, consists of birds perched
on a bunch of fruit and naturalistic flowers
suspended from a ribbon, triangular flower
motifs, animals or lilies in the spandrels and,
on both sides below the large central group,
smaller animals on bunches of fruits and flowers.
Michel Le Blon published in 161 1 a series of
engravings with the same arrangement (PI.
107:1) but composed of other elements 20 .
Similar details also recur in other masters at the
same time and in the same field. According to
Jessen 21 its origin can be found among the
silver engravers of Nuremberg during the last
quarter of the sixteenth century. In the earlier
half of the seventeenth century this type of
ornament was a favourite source for arms
decorators.
The French manufacture of firearms during
the first half of the seventeenth century lies on
the borderline between the two large southern
and northern areas. Traces of both these main
trends in decoration occur at times on the same
weapon. This is the case with the gun in the
National Museum, Munich (Inv. No. 1733.
PI. 104, cf. p. 33), signed by Jean Henequin
of Metz in 1621. We find on the lock-plate the
foliate ornament inhabited by figures, hunters,
dog, and animals, in this case a wild bull
jumping over or attacking a prostrate man.
On the wheel are symmetrically arranged vines
emerging from a grotesque faun together with
hares and a worm. The side-plate is obviously
designed under the influence of the engraved
ornament of Le Blon and contemporary Dutch
artists. It consists of a cherub's head in relief
flanked by lateral panels with trailing vines
and curved scrolls below. A side-plate on one
of Henequin's engravings in the Cabinet des
Estampes, Paris, is of similar design (PI. 102:3).
On the actual rib, however, instead of trailing
vines are arrangements of lines and dots in the
Fontainebleau manner. This graceful style is
still more pronounced in the inlaid stock dating
from 1 62 1 (PI. 104:1). Its decoration is typical
of French influence on western European fire-
arms manufacture. An important feature is the
small-leaved laurel, common in Italian arabes-
ques and especially in their French and Nether-
landish offshoots. This laurel is used profusely
on certain sheets by Cornells Floris and Hans
Vredeman de Vries, and also on French book-
bindings dating from Henry IPs reign 22 . It is
particularly common on French wheel-locks of
about 1600 and shortly after. At first the
124
Plate 107.
Western Europe.
Early seventeenth cen-
tury.
Patterns for silver engraving. 1. By Michel le Blond.
2-3. By unknown artist. 4-6. Krammer, Schweiff-Bvchlein ;
Ex. Berlin, Staatliche Kunstbibliothek O.S. 742, 1014, 1173.
Plate 108.
: fit at
rtuers, A.IHC PrttaL.iL.'
E3cra^jprget ^enw"***^
3 &OT&6&
S^lij^
France.
Philippe Cordier Daubigny, patterns for firearms decora-
tion, i. Date changed from 1635 to 1665; Ex. Vienna,
Staatliches Kunstgewerbemuseum. 2; Ex. Stockholm,
Livrustkammaren. 3-5 ; Ex. Pauilhac Collection, Paris.
Plate 109.
lew
LIVRE
r lte DIVERSE
orugnnanCes de
LAGES MOHE&QYES:;
iQTtSQYlSXASESQrESrTA
vntioiutoutisTiownttaitnimt
[(7u/?r ttic]aatryei)pt (ngcArquehi
fijtrsfiriifian herhum rtgatcraVenank.
atous cngftpti trfirucntih Gkawdrln
Jorge & is la h'me-*,
(Delhi aa ^g^ -
A J sir i s:
France, Paris.
1638.
Thomas Picquot, Livre de diverses ordonnances . . . Paris
1638; Ex. Berlin, Staatliche Kunstbibliothek O.S. 812.
Plate no.
France, Paris.
1638.
Picquot, three sheets from same series as PL 109.
The decoration of French firearms during the earlier half of the seventeenth century
treatment is naturalistic but during the reign
of Henry IV it becomes very small and finally
disappears in a mere conglomeration. The
leaves are very small on the Henequin gun. The
broad sides of the comb of the butt are adorned
with highly stylized plants executed in a precise
fashion. They spring from a vase, within a
framework formed by thin-lined silver ribbons
inlaid in the wood edgewise. Stamped flowers
and studs are driven along the centre line of the
design. The other surfaces of the stock are
decorated in the same technique with running
scrolls or — as on the fore-stock — with short
sprays arranged symmetrically. On butts of
this type the edge is often accentuated on one
side. Here it is done with a silver plate with
stamped decoration consisting of palmettes,
laurels and trophies under canopies. The same
stamped plates are found on three pairs of
wheel-lock pistols in the Historisches Museum,
Dresden (Inv. Nos. F 280-283) 23 . This may be
one of the starting points for the future investi-
gation of French wheel-locks. This use of
stamped silver plate as a decoration for firearms
can be traced still further back with the wheel-
lock pistol No. O 5 010 in the Musee de l'Armee,
Paris (No. 221 in the Inventory of the French
royal Cabinet d'Armes) 2 *, and with a magni-
ficent partisan in Windsor Casde 25 both from
royal French ownership.
Having established this association with
French sources in the decoration of the gun in
Munich, it is less surprising to find on Jean
Henequin's engraving with the earliest flint-
lock cock (PI. 103:1), a scrolling decoration
with volutes adorned with a compact row of
beads, of the kind we recognize from the
engraved ornament of Theodor de Bry or
Anthoine Jacquard or from Netherlandish
ornament of the beginning of the seventeenth
century (Adriaen Collaert, etc.). This ornament
derives from these sources and we can also find
among them trailing vines with the same thin
stalks as on the inlays of the French hand fire-
arms. Before leaving the subject of Jean
Henequin's ornament mention should be made
of two wheels on one of the sheets in Biblio-
theque Nationale, Paris (PI. 102:4). O ne is
embellished with symmetrical trails, inhabited
by figures growing from a vase, the other with
scrolling and trailing plants. This latter decora-
tion is also on the sheet with the flindock cock
in Hamburg.
The wheel-lock dogs, the heads of the flint-
lock cocks, the rear terminal of the lock-plate,
etc., are chiselled in relief, both on the gun in
Munich and on the pattern engravings. This
predilection for sculptural relief is perpetually
being encountered in the borderland between
north and south and deserves to be noticed and
remembered.
In studying the decoration of French fire-
arms of the beginning of the seventeenth
century we come to the conclusion that the
elements of this decoration have been borrowed
from widely differing sources, including some
which originally had little or nothing to do
with the decoration of arms. We have seen how
the stockmakers decorated objects other than
weapons and it is to be assumed that persons
from other crafts contributed in producing
guns and pistols. Artists like Marin Le Bour-
geoys were more independent and were able
to carry on their profession without interfer-
ence from officialdom by the grant of living
quarters in the French royal palace.
According to an ordinance relating to the
Paris gunmakers which is dated September
1576, and was supplemented on 4 May 1654™,
the latter were entitled to decorate their pro-
ducts with engravings and chiselling in any
kind of metal whatsoever. Jean Henequin was
apparently gunsmith and decorator in one and
the same person. We know that at a much
later period the gunsmiths enrolled the help of
professional engravers 27 and it can be assumed
that this was an expression of a very long
tradition. There is every reason to believe that
the engravers who signed patterns for gun-
smiths also decorated guns.
The oldest engraved patterns with complete
locks that can definitely be defined as flintlocks
are signed by Philippe Cordier Daubigny.
Boeheim devotes one of the monographs in
Meister der Waffenschmiedekunst™ to him. In his
paper 'Die Luxusgewehr-Fabrication in Frank-
reich im XVII und XVIII Jahrhundert' he
wrote some brief notices on Daubigny and pub-
125
Flintlock
lished one of his engravings which he regarded
as a flintlock cock 29 . Stocklein made a summary
of the printed sources on Daubigny 33 and Post
used this summary when publishing a pair of
wheel-lock pistols in Zeughaus, Berlin, signed
'Isaar Cordier a Fontenai' 31 .
Aubigny is the name of two places in
Flanders, but there are also five places so named
in the vicinity of Paris 32 . There is also one in
Belgium near Tournai and one in Vendee.
Stocklein considers that Cordier worked in
Paris 33 . Research in archives might definitely
solve the question of the Cordier family's
origin. It may be assumed that Philippe and
Isaac belonged to one and the same family of
gunsmiths. There is definite evidence for them
both in pattern books and firearms. The
mysterious Jean only occurs in Boeheim's
statement which is based on a notice by another
person concerning a rubbing in the Institut de
France in Paris 34 . Both this rubbing and the
many impressions of lock-plates mentioned in
this connection have been proved to be non-
existent. Boeheim's informant was probably
thinking of the collection of rubbings in the
Bibliotheque Nationale (Cabinet des Estampes),
where the sheet illustrated here (PI. 14:4)
signed 'P. Cordier' is preserved.
As Post has pointed out, the numbered sheets
signed by Philippe Cordier in the Staatliche
Kunstbibliothek, Berlin, belong to a later
edition that was published by Van Merlen in
Paris in the 1660s. The original states of these
sheets bear dates from 1634 to 1637 and
another the date 1644 s6 .
There are sixteen sheets in the Staadiche
Kunstbibliothek. Two of them are photo-
graphic copies from an original preserved else-
where. In addition one of the photographs is a
duplicate 36 . Only eleven are firearm designs and
of these four are for flintlocks. Post illustrates
the three most important of the wheel-lock
engravings, among them the only sheet with a
complete lock 37 . On the edge of the wheel it
bears the inscription: 'Vivit post funera
virtujs]'. Its original date is 1635 ; this is shown
on a copy in the Pauilhac collection (PI. 108 13).
If it were to be dated by the cock we should
look back to the sixteenth century. The decora-
126
tion is of exacdy the same kind as that on the
monogrammist m.n.'s sheet in Vienna and on
Jean Henequin's gun in Munich. We have
already noticed a preference for flowers in
their ornament. This finds striking expression in
another sheet (PL 108:4) which shows a
highly V curved side-plate with an almost
circular, distinctive widening in the middle.
All Daubigny's wheel-lock cocks and most of
the flindock cocks have the jaws designed as
monsters' heads. Among the flintlock sheets
there is only one that illustrates a complete
lock, that used by Boeheim to illustrate the
monograph in Meister der Waffenschmiedekunsf* .
The reproduction shown here from the original
in the Museum fur angewandte Kunst in
Vienna (PL 108 :i) 39 depicts two cocks, a
wheel-lock cock which Boeheim has included,
and a flindock cock which has been excluded.
We find in the decoration of the lock-plate that
the figures, which were usually included in the
trailing vines, have been replaced by scenes
with horsemen and dogs in a landscape,
whereas the pursued stag and a dog retain their
place among the vines outside this scene. On
another sheet, whose original date 1635 and
the motto 'sine Cerere et Bacho friget Venus'
can be read on the specimen in the Livrust-
kammare (PL 108:2), the scene is made up of
figures from Classical sources. The figures
enclosed within the vines are replaced by a
lion killing a dog. Another sheet dated 1634
(PL 108:5), showing the rear part of a lock-
plate, contains still another hunting scene.
The rest of Daubigny's engravings do not
give us much more in the way of ornament.
Among them two figure scenes, a heraldic
shield with a sun and three leaves and two bold
acanthus arabesques can be observed.
Philippe Cordier Daubigny's style belongs to
the northern group based on Netherlandish
sources with which we have already become
acquainted. In other respects his artistic
qualities are insignificant. His role as an artist
or practising decorator of firearms cannot be
judged. He seems chiefly to have been an
average French arms decorator of his age but
not an originator. The only known example of
his work as a practising decorator is the
The decoration of French firearms during the earlier half of the seventeenth century
rubbing of a lock-plate in the Bibliotheque
Nationale in Paris referred to above. The
signature on this rubbing is of exactly the same
kind as on the pattern sheets. In date this
rubbing must be earlier than the latter. The
subject of the decoration is Orpheus playing
to the wild beasts, an early example of a type
which becomes more and more common during
the first half of the seventeenth century. The
treatment is primarily naturalistic with sug-
gestions of highly stylized vines.
The signed pairs of pistols in the Berlin
Zeughaus and the Pauilhac collection, Paris,
are decorated in the same style as Philippe
Cordier Daubigny's engravings. In date they
should be placed closer to the middle of the
century than Post puts them, the flintlock
pistols in the Pauilhac Collection even to about
1650.
In Thomas Picquot's Livre de diverses ordon-
nances, issued in Paris, 1638 (PI. 109, no),
we find designs for the decoration of locks,
mounts and barrels. In order to comprehend
this decoration properly we must turn back to
the Lisieux group of firearms. The engraving
here is confined to details of the inlay on the
stocks, whereas the locks and mounts are
etched and the barrels decorated with gold
damascening on a blued ground. The inventory
of the French royal Cabinet 'dArmes often
refers to gold ornament against a 'couleur
d'eau'. The beautifully drawn trailing vines on
the arms by Marin Le Bourgeoys in the Musee
de l'Armee, Paris, still show up against a clear
blue colour with a very striking effect.
Damascening is carried out by roughening
a metal surface with a sharp instrument and then
hammering on thin gold foil. Both technique
and patterns are considered to have come from
the Orient at the beginning of the sixteenth
century by the familiar routes via Venice and
Spain. The ornaments were abstract moresques
and flowers and sheaths springing from the
same slender stalks as the moresques. After the
middle of the sixteenth century these moresques
are combined with the scrolls, thus giving rise
to a type of surface decoration which is called
'SchweiP in German, meaning a tail. This
ornament is considered to have originated with
the silver engravers in Nuremberg: it was
exploited by Georg Wechter and Paul Flindt
and their contemporaries. The Dutch Adriaen
Muntinck and others exploited the style and it
finally reached France. It can be combined
with other kinds of ornamentation to form
'SchweiP — grotesques, etc. 40
The decoration of the barrel on the gun in
the Hermitage Museum, Leningrad (PL 8),
signed by Marin le Bourgeoys, is very similar to
the moresque and is executed in the tech-
nique mentioned above. The same kind of
technique and ornament but more European
in character and with grotesque features
embellishes the barrel of the flintlock gun (Inv.
No. M 435) also signed by 'M le bourgeoys' in
the Musee de l'Armee, Paris. It is also etched
with a recessed ground on the butt-plate,
trigger-guard, and lock-plate (PI. 12:3-6). By
reference to this gun one can attribute to Le
Bourgeoys the decoration of the early flintlock
gun (Inv. No. M 529. PI. 11:1,2, 12:1) in the
same museum and of the matchlock gun No.
M 369 (PL 12:2). The latter is of a particularly
lavish character. The former follows the
design of No. M 435. This talented painter
of Lisieux used the same kind of 'SchweiP
grotesque decoration on the signed gun in
Paris and on the matchlock gun. For the butts
he has used in the one case gold on a blue
ground, in the other case a red ground. On
M 529 we find in the same place a dolphin
painted in gold. Otherwise the decoration of
the stocks is confined to very thin, inlaid silver
lines which follow the edges of the butt and
the fore-stock up to the muzzle.
We find Marin Le Bourgeoys' typical
'SchweiP on the lock-plate and etched on the
trigger-guard, and other parts of the Hermitage
Museum gun (PL 8). For the decoration of the
plates on the sides of the small of the butt he
has used the same technique but also shows that,
as regards ornament, he possessed a knowledge
of the forms which the Fontainebleau style
borrowed from Italy.
The inlaid work on the stock is also worthy
of notice. The material is metal and mother-of-
pearl in extremely precise and bold design,
symmetrical 'SchweiP ornament in which the
127
Flintlock
moresque element is distinctly prominent.
Some of the leaves are executed in dashes;
mother-of-pearl has been used for flowers and
fruits. Some small leaves similar to the laurel
mentioned above occur in this decoration,
though very sparsely. Comparison with the
inlaid work on the stock of the early flintlock
gun in the Renwick Collection (PI. 9) suggests
that both were done by the same hand. The
large areas on the sides of the butt — the place
where the decoration of the guns in the Musee
de l'Armde is painted — are treated in the same
manner. A grotesque monster's head, birds, a
hair, and a snail have, however, been executed
in engraved silver sheet. This ornament is no
other than a modified 'Schweif' technique as
we know it from the etched metal surfaces and
the pattern sheets of the ornament engravers.
Similar compact ornaments in which mor-
esque details are prominent also decorate the
barrel of the gun in the Renwick Collection
and that of a wheel-lock gun in the Wallace
Collection flnv. No. 11 33. PI. 13:3, 4). The
double barrelled pistol in the Pauilhac collec-
tion (PI. 13 :i, 2) provides a variety of Marin Le
Bourgeoys's ornaments executed in his par-
ticular technique and embraces in a single unit
the group with Marin Le Bourgeoys's signature
and that with the mark containing the initials
'1. B.' which it has been suggested was used by
Marin's brother Jean. The pair of pistols No.
211 in the inventory of the French royal
Cabinet d'Armes (cf. p. 31) also belongs to
this latter group. The same ornament appears
on this but on a smaller scale, especially on
barrel and pommels.
Within the Lisieux group the development of
ornament can be traced from the stiff precise
stage on the last mentioned pair of pistols to
freer 'Schweif' and trailing vine ornaments in
combination with grotesques on the signed gun
of the 1 620s in the Musee de l'Armee (Inv. No.
M 435. Pis. 11:3, 12:3-6). This development
takes place over a period of some thirty years.
Among contemporary ornament engravings
there is a series which gready resembles these
last, viz. Gabriel Krammer's Schweijbtichlein,
printed in Cologne by Johan Bussemacher in
161 1 (PI. 107:4-6). Krammer describes himself
128
on the title page as a carpenter. Certain of his
patterns are obviously intended to be proto-
types for intarsia, a surface decoration which
largely coincides in its effect with gold orna-
mentation against a blue ground or with
'Schweif' ornaments based on an enamel
technique. The fact that this kind of ornament
is better represented in German pattern books
than in French ones is probably a mere coin-
cidence. We may quote as an example of its
occurrence in French territory the painted
decoration in Chateau d'Ansy-le-Franc and in
Chateau d'Orion, both of the middle of the
sixteenth century 41 . The former in particular
provides splendid opportunities for comparison
with the ornament of Le Bourgeoys.
Krammer's Schweif biichlein also contains sheets
with floral decoration that is perhaps intended
to be at least pardy naturalistic. This is typical
of the period. In the ornament derived from
Germany (cf. PI. 107:1), followed by the
decorators of west European firearms at the
beginning of the seventeenth century, stylized
flowers were common. Naturalistic flowers
occur also in the work of Abraham De Bruyn
and Theodor de Bry and in ornament in their
manner. The Baroque style made much use of
these naturalistic forms and they are to be
found to an increasing extent until the middle
of the seventeenth century. In Paris Jean Robin
made a garden with exotic flowers which could
serve as examples for craftsmen. This garden,
the first of its kind, was taken over by Henry IV
and a publication with seventy -three foolscap
pages of exotic flowers was issued in Paris in
1608 by Pierre Vallet, 'brodeur ordinaire du
Roy', with the title Le Jardin du Roy tres
chrestien Henry IV* 2 . The lavish use of natural-
istic flowers on embroidery during the begin-
ning of the seventeenth century, on gloves for
example, must undoubtedly be viewed against
this background, but this lies beyond the scope
of this treatise. This work can be mentioned,
however, as an expression of French interest in
naturalistic flowers at the beginning of the
seventeenth century, as well as the remarkable
transformation of 'Schoten' into naturalistic
flowers which takes place in the 1630s 43 : this
The decoration of French firearms during the earlier half of the seventeenth century
can be studied in Delabarre, Hedouyns and
Lefebure.
A panel of flower designs very similar to
those in Krammer's Schweifbiichlein is to be
found on a sheet in Thomas Picquot's pattern
album (PI. 109:3). The complete tide of this
album is: hivre de diverses ordonnances de fevillages
morseqves toutes nouuelles et non encore usitee en
France pour I 'enrichisement dufer et de lacier propre
aux arquebu^iers forhisseurs horlogers et generalle-
ment a tous ceux qui ce servent du a\eau de la forge
et de la lime. De die au Roy. Par Thomas Picquot,
peintre i6}8. A" Paris che% Michel van Lochom
graueur et imprimeur du Roy demeurant rue St
Iacque a la Rose Blanche Couro. Avec privilige du
Roy. This work (PI. 109, no) is known only in
one copy, that in the Staadiche Kunstbibliothek
in Berlin (O. S. 81 2)". Picquot also made two
portraits of Marin le Bourgeoys, a medal and
an engraving (the frontispiece) 48 . Judging by
the style of the ornament on the engraved
portrait, the date 1637 and the signature 'Th.P.'
Robert-Dumesnil attributes the thirteen pattern
sheets in his catalogue in the Cabinet des
Estampes, Paris (Tome 'Le 24') 46 to Thomas
Picquot. Guilmard does not seem to have
shared Robert-Dumesnil's opinion as he attri-
butes them to a 'Maitre au Monogramme
H. P.' 47 . Robert-Dumesnil's opinion, with which
Huard agrees 48 , is however correct. The sheets
in the Cabinet des Estampes are loose pages
from the Livre des diverses ordonnances and include
still another page which is missing in the
Berlin copy 49 .
Page '2' in Berlin contains Louis XIII's rather
unflattering portrait in a Baroque cartouche,
surrounded by trophies, palm leaves and laurel
as well as the king's crowned cypher and a very
diffuse dedication. From it one can make out
that his Majesty worked at gun making and
that those patterns were also novel in their
technique, thus repeating the untruth of the
tide page.
It will be seen from the title and the dedica-
tion that the book as a whole should be
regarded as consisting of patterns for arms
decoration. The last page is perhaps an
exception but it is interesting as a study of
Picquot's technique. Most show white orna-
ments against a dark ground. On pages '7' and
'8' in Berlin the opposite is the case. Picquot
calls himself a painter and he is mentioned as
such by Michel de Marolles 50 , but he is also
styled 'faiseur de sphere' 81 . He says himself
on one of the pattern sheets that he was born
at Lisieux. He was granted his first 'brevet de
logement' in the Louvre gallery after the late
'sieur Boule, menusier en ebene' on 2 January
1636. He had to share this with the gunsmith
Francois Duclos 52 , who was succeeded by
F. Belocq while Picquot continued to live there.
When he entered the premises in 1636 he was
'peintre, ayant charge du globe ou sphere de
Sa Majeste'. Benezit states from unquoted
sources that Picquot was a painter, etcher and
goldsmith, that he engraved portraits and
patterns for goldsmiths and embroiderers, that
he was 'valet de chambre' to Henry IV and
Louis XIII, that he was a very talented artist
and pupil of Marin Le Bourgeoys 83 . Benefit's
source of information was undoubtedly Robert-
Dumesnil, who in turn bases his information on
Michel de Marolles's catalogue of 1666. He
mentions Picquot on page 112 and states that
the latter engraved pattern illustrations for
goldsmiths' work and embroidery and adds a
list of his works. The information that he had
been 'valet de chambre' to Henry IV is not
given by de Marolles.
In his capacity of 'charge du globe ou sphere
de Sa Majeste' Picquot succeeded Marin Le
Bourgeoys, of whom Huard says that he was
buried in the Church of Saint Germain at
Lisieux 3 September 1634 84 . Picquot continued
the work of his teacher in other ways. The
hivre de diverses ordonnances proves to be largely
based on Marin Le Bourgeoys. The lock on
sheet '3' in Berlin (Robert-Dumesnil 12 (n)),
(PI. 110:2) is decorated with trailing vines of
exactly the same kind as those on the guns in
the Musee de l'Armee. This also applies to the
sheet with the pommels on Berlin sheet '6*
(Robert-Dumesnil 14 (13)), and Berlin sheet
'10' (Robert-Dumesnil 7 (6)), which according
to Robert-Dumesnil, and probably rightly, are
considered to show two 'lance points', and also
other sheets. There is a good deal to indicate,
however, that a new epoch had arrived. The
129
Flintlock
influence of the Baroque has dissolved the
symmetrical 'SchweiP ornament on the Berlin
sheet '3' and also on sheet '16'. On sheet '14'
(Robert-Dumesnil 2 (1)) dated 1637 we en-
counter a preliminary stage of 'Schoten'
together with 'SchweiP and grotesque. The
naturalism which served as a connecting link
to Krammer's Schweifbiichkin finds expression
in flowers, ears of corn and bunches of fruit.
The Berlin sheet '20' gives an original example
of a composition of this ornament together
with 'SchweiP and grotesque. An auricular
"cartouche is to be seen on the title page, and
another less pronounced cartouche surrounds
the portrait of the king on the dedication
page.
There are not many details of weapons on
Picquot's pattern sheets, but what there are
are particularly valuable as dated material for
comparison. A flintlock with trailing vine
decoration has already been mentioned (PI.
110:2). A lock-plate and two ends of lock-
plates are the main features on Berlin sheet '19'
(Robert-Dumesnil 13 (12)). A lock, but without
the steel, like that on Berlin sheet '3' is also
on sheet '4' (Robert-Dumesnil 11 (10)); this
lock-plate is decorated with a hare shoot with
dogs, a sportsman on foot and two horsemen
(PI. 110:1). Trigger-guards seen from below
are illustrated on Berlin sheet '17'. Of special
interest are the two sheets each with two
pommels seen from the side, sheets '21' and
'22' in Berlin. The former bears the signature
'Th. Picquot Peintre inv[enit] et fe cit natif de
Lisieux' (PL 110:3), the latter "Th. Picqot
fe[cit]'. Their design in which scrolls and
grotesques are the essential features, differs,
however, from all extant pommels. These are
simpler and nearer to the design consisting of
a head alone which we later find on ivory
stocked pistols. One of these pommels by
Picquot bears Louis XIII's portrait, another his
monogram and heraldic fleur-de-lis.
It is difficult to say what significance
Picquot's pattern illustrations had. The first
impression is that they constituted a publica-
tion of Marin Le Bourgeoys's pattern drawings
for the decoration of firearms. In comparison
with pieces definitely decorated by him they
130
nevertheless show several more advanced
features. This does not prevent their being
derived from Le Bourgeoys, since he was still
alive in 1634 and the latest weapon with his
decoration that can be dated was made in the
1 620s. There are, however, some arms manu-
factured after Le Bourgeoys's death which are
decorated in his manner. This decoration may
quite well have been carried out by Thomas
Picquot. Of these the gun No. M 410 in the
Musee de l'Armee, Paris (PI. 17:1, 19:1) and
the wheel-lock pistols (PI. 19:2, 134:17) in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art bear the signature
'F de clos' = Francois Duclos, that is, the
gunsmith with whom Picquot shared his abode
and shop in the Louvre from 2 January 1636.
The reason for granting this privilege to these
two masters may have been that they were
already associated or wished to be so. All we
know of Duclos is that he left the Louvre in
1659, and he may well have been a pupil of
Marin Le Bourgeoys. The form and decoration
of these three firearms which show a definite
affinity to the work of the older master might be
explained in this way. Le Bourgeoys seems to
have desired to give the gun butts an original
and individual form. Duclos had the same
intention in designing the butt of the gun in
the Musee de l'Armee (cf. Pis. 17:1 and 19:1).
This gun and that signed by Marin Le Bour-
geoys in the Hermitage Museum, Leningrad
(PI. 8) both have the same Minerva herm and
Pan masks, though they are differendy placed.
This is one of the consistent features in the
Lisieux weapons. Another applies to the
decoration of the stock and barrel. They
belong to the group signed with a cross-bow
and the initials '1 b' (cf. PI. 9 and PI. 13). This
embellishment is a pronounced symmetrical
'SchweiP. On the gun in Paris it develops into
a grotesque in which the French national coat
of arms plays the role of the ordinary cartouche
in the later grotesques. The barrels of the pistols
in the Metropolitan Museum of Art are more
simply decorated but in exactly the same
fashion. They probably made up a garniture
with the gun in Paris. The same decoration
appears on the pommels of the pistols. These
are of iron and extend some distance along the
The decoration of French firearms during the earlier half of the seventeenth century
small of the butt. The same ornament is inlaid
in the stock of the gun.
The trailing vines referred to above occur
also on the cartouche on the small of the butt
enclosing Justice and an 'L' below the French
crown, and most distinctly on the lock-plate
(PI. 1 8 :i). There they emerge from the bunches
of fruit which are placed symmetrically on each
side of a cartouche. The silver lines, known
from the Le Bourgeoys arms, are also found
on the gun in Paris. They frame the butt and
follow the line of the fore-stock on both sides.
Two decorative features on the left-hand side
of the pistols, in front of the side-plates, are a
novelty. They resemble auricular ornament.
This in turn corresponds with Picquot's album.
Most of the motifs in this album are the
standard type of panel with 'SchweiP, trailing
vines and grotesques, suitable for decorating
barrels. This seems to have been a popular
form of decoration. It is also to be found on
later arms, most of which are signed by
Parisian masters. In one instance both the
choice of motifs and technique agree so closely
with Picquot's engravings that the inlay might
very well be by his hand, viz. the barrel
decoration on the 1640 set signed by P. Thomas,
Paris, in the Livrustkammare (PI. 20:4, 5). We
find on this gun symmetrical 'SchweiP and
trailing decoration, on the pistols naturalistic
trailing vines arranged symmetrically.
The gilt surface of the decoration on this
garniture is practically level with the barrels.
About 1650 the decoration occasionally rises
above the surface and becomes at the same
time slighdy smaller in scale. This is the case
with the trailing vines on the barrels of the
Wender gun signed by Thobie, Paris, in the
Lowenburg (PL 25:1, 4). We find this orna-
mentation also on the Barroy pistols in the
Livrustkammare (PI. 54:1) and in the Nether-
lands on ivory stocked pistols (PI. 53:1). In
the earliest year associated with Marcou, 1657,
and in the pattern book published in that year
this ornament is shown on a butt-cap with the
short spurs of about 1650 (PL 113 :i). Still later,
in the Thuraine and Le Hollandois group of
the 1650S-60S this long established ornament
can be traced even as late as the beginning
of the 1 670s (PL 74:1).
The engraved ornament employed, for
example, by Philippe Cordier Daubigny is
characteristic of flintlocks up to the middle of
the seventeenth century; then other kinds of
ornament appear together with the Classical
breakthrough. Locksmiths on the periphery of
the flintlock manufacturing areas, Werder of
Zurich, Jean Paul Klett of Salzburg (pistols,
Carolino-Augusteum Museum, Salzburg),
Kasper Dinckels of Utrecht, etc., still use a
pronounced trailing vine ornamentation with-
out figures.
Vine trails with figures are found on pistols
by Van den Sande of Zutphen (PL 30:1), Cunet
a Lyon (PL 26:2) and others, and finally, on
two sheets in Marcou's pattern album of 1657.
This ornament combined with scrolling and
grotesques in an early form decorates the lock
of the small bore gun, 'Faict A Turene m.d.' in
Windsor (PL 14:2). One of Picquot's sheets
with a complete flintlock shows a hunting scene
covering the entire plate. It is usual, however,
for both ends of the plate to be decorated with
flowers. Examples include the Dauphin gun in
the Berlin Zeughaus (PL 18:2), the Livrust-
kammare gun (PL 22:1) signed by P. Thomas
of Paris and rubbings in Berlin of locks signed
by Mayer of Lyons, Meunier and Auber of
Geneva, 'A Bergerac' Raguet and Beradier
(PL 22, 23). An early example is the rubbing in
the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, of the lock
signed 'P. Cordier' (PL 14:4).
As the result of a change in fashion, instead
of whole scenes, a group or a figure is presented
in front of the cock and under the pan. These
are linked up with flowers on the recessed rear
point and on the cock. The locks of the pistols
by Devie in the Historisches Museum, Dresden,
illustrate the type (PL 23 :6). This kind of lock
decoration, which, in contrast to the trailing
vine and the scenes with many figures, leaves
parts of the lock-plate empty, was not new. It
became increasingly common in the 1640s,
P. Cordier's rubbing in the Bibliotheque
Nationale actually belongs to it, as does another
rubbing on an early lock in the same collec-
tion 58 . The decoration of this recalls designs
131
Flintlock
on engraved silver. A direct borrowing from a
particular pattern book illustration can be
found on the pistol in Berlin (PI. 27:2) signed
by Ezechias Colas of Sedan. The squirrel sitting
on a bunch of fruit is to be seen at the foot of
the engraving illustrated on PI. 107:2. Typical
of this lock decoration is a larger figure on the
centre of the plate and flowers on its rear tip,
sometimes at both ends. This is the same
arrangement that characterizes Parisian lock
decoration with a figure or group on the centre
of the plate. As late as the middle of the century
we find lock decoration related to pattern books
of Dutch silver engravers, for example, on
pistols by Jean Prevot of Metz (PI. 28:2), Le
Pierre of Maastricht (PI. 29:3) and Cornells
Coster of Utrecht (PI. 30:3) as well as on the
group datable from the 1630S-40S which have
their pommels covered with stamped silver
plate (PI. 24:1).
The embellishment of early flintlock firearms
up to the middle of the seventeenth century
varies little and consists chiefly of trailing
ornaments enriched with figures and, finally
with whole figure subjects. In the 1640s this
type is varied by another deriving from Dutch
design books for silver engravers. This later
type appears in the 1630s; it resulted in a
decoration of detached figures of Classical type,
sometimes combined with trophies in front
of the cock and under the pan, and with more
or less naturalistic flowers on the recessed rear
point of the lock-plate and the cock. This
wealth of naturalistic flowers, which plays a
part generally in French ornamentation during
the second quarter of the seventeenth century,
became standardized on the flindocks but could
also, when executed by a competent hand,
retain a certain freshness.
Editor's Notes
* Since the war much more interest has been
shown in the decorative aspect of firearms.
The main publications are: J. F. Hayward,
The Art of the Gunmaker. 2 vols. London
1962 and 1964. B. Thomas, O. Gamber and
H. Schedelmann, Die schonsten Waffen und
Rustungen, Heidelberg 1963.
f Later still, as on the magnificent fowling
piece by Berthault of Paris of about 1660-70
in the collection of Field-Marshal Sir Francis
Festing.
I A further contribution to the history of
Tornier has since been made by H. Schedel-
mann, Journal of the Arms and Armour
Society, London. Vol. II, p. 261. 'Jean
Conrad Tornier, an Alsatian Gunstock-
maker.'
Notes to Chapter Eleven
1 . Semper, Der Stil in den technischen und tek-
tonischen Kiinsten oder praktische Aestetik. II.
P. 549, note.
2. Lauts, Alte deutsche Waffen. P. 23, note.
3. Thomas, 'Eine deutsche Radschlossbiichse
von 1593 mit Beineinlagen nach Adriaen
Collaert'. Die graphischen Kunste, Neue Folge
Bd. IE (1938). H. II. Pp. 72-77.
4. As regards the ornaments the same terms
used by Paulsson in Shanes dekorativa konst
have been adopted here (see especially
pp. 12-32). The term arabesque is used in
its original sense of trailing vines and,
moreover, the German term 'SchweiP (a
tail). 'Norden' and 'Nordisk' (Nordic, the
northern countries and northern) refer in
this connection to the countries north of
the Alps in contrast to Italy.
5 . Dean, Handbook of arms and armor. P. 92.
PI. LI.
6. Le Musee de l'Armee. Armes et armures
anciennes. T. II. Pp. 11 1, 112. PI. XXXVIII.
II.
7. Boeheim, Meister der Waffenschmiedekunst.
P. 102.
8. Guilmard. Les maitres ornemanistes. P. 41.
No. 22.
9. Ritter, Illustrierter Katalog der Ornament-
stichsammkung des K. K. Osterreich. Museums
fur Kunst und Industrie. Erwerbungen seit dem
Jahre 1871. P. 162.
10. Guilmard, Les maitres ornemanistes. P. 49.
No. 50.
11. Cf. Cederstrom and Malmborg, Den dldre
Livrustkammaren 16 ') 4. PI. 74.
132
Plate in.
•3£;r-sr Cum t>a rtt^-
France, Paris.
1657 (?)
Francois Marcou, Plusieurs Pieces d' Arquebu^erie . . .
Paris 1657 (?); Ex. Berlin, Staatliche Kunstbibliothek O.S.
820.
E.x<t.>Ji cumprinil tl i is
I *=>
. ■•»
Frankrike, Paris.
1657 (?)
Marcou, two sheets from same series as PL 111.
Plate 113.
. tou jmwmt. i*j
lacq fad -
France, Paris.
1657 (?)
Marcou, two sheets from same series as PI. 111.
Plate 114.
m
.ssssssssssaasH^fsaeMassssissasssasssassKiSBSiissasassassis:
France ( ?)
Dauphin Louis (XIV's) cabinet. According to tradition a
gift from Louis XIV to Nils Bielke, Sturefors.
France, Paris.
Thuraine and Le Hollandois, Plusieurs Models . . . Paris,
undated; Ex. Stockholm, Livrustkammaren.
Plate 116.
France, Paris.
c. 1660.
Thuraine and Le Hollandois, two sheets from same series
as PI. 115.
Plate 117.
France, Paris.
1659.
Jean Berain, Diverses pieces tres utile pour les Arquebtf^ieres
. . . Paris 1659; Ex. Stockholm, Livrustkammaren. From
Foulc Collection.
Plate 1 1 8.
France, Paris.
1659.
Berain, sheet from same series as PL 117.
The decoration of French firearms during the earlier half of the seventeenth century
12. Laking, Catalogue of the European armour
and arms in the Wallace Collection at Hertford
House. Pp. 230, 231.
13. Cederstrom and Malmborg, Den aldre Liv-
rustkammaren, 16 J 4. PL 71.
14. Communicated by Gunnar W. Lundberg,
Ph.L. The casket has according to the
same source been transferred from the
Louvre where it was received in 1856 with
'Donation Sauvageot', in whose catalogue
it is No. B 134.
15. Cf. Stocklein, Meisfer des Eisenschnittes. P.
79. Abb. 1 3. PI. XXVIII.
16. Livrustkammaren. Vagledning 19 21. P. 54.
No. 381.
17. See also Stocklein and others. PI. XL.
18. Stockel, Haandskydevaabens Bedommelse. I.
P. 229.
19. [Lotz], Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung
der Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek, Berlin. P. 147.
No. 1014.
20. [Lotz], Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung
der Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek, Berlin. P. 147.
No. 1015.
21. Jessen, Der Ornamentstich. P. 823.
22. U art pour tous. T. VIII. P. 823.
23. Ehrenthal, Fiihrer durch das Kdnigliche His-
torische Museum yu Dresden, 1899. P- I 3 I >
24. GuifFrey, Inventaire general du mobilier de la
couronne. T. II. P. 71.
25. Laking, The armoury of Windsor Castle.
European section. No. 39. PI. V.
26. Lespinasse, Les metiers et corporations de la
ville de Paris. T. II. Pp. 350-56.
27. Wille, Memoires et journal. T. I. Pp. 66, 67.
28. Boeheim, Meister der Waffenschmiedekunst.
Pp. 55, 56.
29. Boeheim, 'Die Luxusgewehr-Fabrication
in Frankreich im XVII und XVIII Jahr-
hundert'. Blatter fiir Kunstgewerbe 1886. P.
34-
30. Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Lex ikon der
bilddenden Kiinstler. Bd. VII. P. 403.
31. Cf. Post, 'Ein Paar franzosischer Rad-
schloss-pistolen von Isaak Cordier Dau-
bigny'. Zeitschrift fur historische Waff en- und
Kostumkunde. Bd. XIII. P. 237. Cf. also
Post, 'Ein Paar Steinschlosspistolen von
Isaac Cordier Daubigny'. Zeitschrift fur
historische Waffen- und Kostumkunde. Bd.
XIV. Pp. 54,55-
32. Stockel, Haandskydevaabens Bedommelse I.
P. 345.
33. Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der
bildenden Kiinstler. Bd. VII. P. 403.
34. Boeheim, Meister der Waffenschmiedekunst.
P. 56.
35. Cf. Guilmard, Les maitres ornemanistes. P. 5 3 .
No. 67.
3 6 . [Lotz] , Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung der
Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek, Berlin. P. 119.
No. 809.
37. Post, Ein Paar franzosischer Radschloss-
pistolen von Isaak Daubigny. Zeitschrift
fiir historische Waffen- und Kostumkunde. Bd.
XIII. P. 238.
38. Boeheim, Meister der Waffenschmiedekunst.
P. 56.
39. [Schestag], Illustrierter Katalog der Orna-
mentstichsammlung des K. K. Osterr Museums
fur Kunst und Industrie. P. 146.
40. Jessen, Der Ornamentstich. P. 115 ff.
41. Rouyer et Darcel, Uart architectural en
France. T. I. Pp. 41-43. Pis. 38-42. T. II.
Pp. 7, 8. PL 9.
42. Lotz, Bibliographie der Modelbu'cher. P. 5 .
43. [Lotz], Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung
der Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek, Berlin. P. 119.
Nos. 806, 807, 811.
44. Lenk, 'De aldsta flintiasen'. Konsthistorisk
tidskrift, 1934. P. 133. [Lotz], 'Katalog der
Ornamentstichsammlung der Staatlichen
Kunstbibliothek. Berlin'. P. 119.
45 . Huard, 'Thomas Picquot et les portraits de
Marin Bourgeoys'. Arethuse. 192/. PL
XXII.
46. Robert-Dumesnil, Le peintre-graveur fran-
fais. T. VI. Pp. 233-39.
47. Guilmard, Les maitres ornemanistes. P. 49.
No. 51.
48. Huard, 'Thomas Picquot et les portraits de
Marin Bourgeoys'. Arethuse, 19 27. P. 139.
49. The following sheets in the Berlin copy are
in Vol. Le 24 in Paris (B = Berlin, RD =
Robert-Dumesnil), B 3 = RD 12(11), B4
= RD 11 (10), B 5 = RD 4 (3), B 6 = RD
14 ^13), B 9 = RD 10 (9), B 10 = RD 7 (6),
B 14 - RD 2 (1), B 15 = ? RD 6 (5), B 18
133
Flintlock
= RD 3 (2), B 19 = RD 13 (12) and B 23 =
RD 9 (8). RD 5 (4) is not in Berlin, RD 6 (5)
is probably in the Berlin copy.
Marolles, Michel de, 'Suite des peintres qui
ont vecu en Frence depuis 1600'. Le livre
des peintres et gfaveurs. Bibliotheque El^evi-
rienne. T. 46. P. 53.
'Brevets de logements sous la grande
galerie du Louvre.' Archives de I'art Jrancais.
LP. 198.
52. Guiffrey, 'Logements d'artistes au Louvre.'
50
5 1
J3<
54-
55
Nouvelles archives de Part jrancais. T. 11.
Pp. 65, 128.) Not with Boulle as Baron de
Cosson states in the catalogue of the Duke
of Dino's arms collection (p. 100) and
Huard in Arethuse (see below).
Benezit, Dictionnaire . . . des peintres. T. III.
P. 483.
Huard, 'Marin Le Bourgeoys, Peintre du
Roi'. Bulletin de la Societe historique de
Lisieux. 19 13. P. 35.
Lenk, 'De aldsta flintlasen'. Konsthistorisk
tidskrift, 1934. Pp. 130, 131. Fig. 14.
134
CHAPTER TWELVE
Patterns and decoration during the middle
of the seventeenth century
The full title of Marcou's pattern book
for gunsmiths (PL iii:i) is: Plusieurs
Pieces d'Arquebu^erie Receuillies et Inuentees
Par Franfois Marcou Maistre Arquebu^ier A Paris.
C. laquinet Sculpsit. Et se uendent che^ I'Autheur a
Paris rue S:t Anthoine au Roy de Suede avec
priuilege du Roy. This title is surrounded by a
composition resembling a chimney-piece, con-
sisting of a wreath of oak and laurel, by
trophies, prisoners, Minerva and Fortitude, and
at the top, Fame standing on a mask. This is an
example of the late use of Baroque auricular
ornament in France. The page immediately
following the title page shows Marcou's portrait
(Fig. 3). The twelve following pages are
numbered 2-13. There are in addition three
unnumbered, in all seventeen pages, including
the tide. This is the make-up of the copy in the
Staatliche Kunstbibliothek, Berlin (O. S. 820) 1 .
Guilmard 2 , however, knows of one copy in the
Berard collection with another sheet with a
larger illustration surface (20 x 15.5 cm) than
the others, which are 10 x 15 cm. Most of the
illustrations are signed 'C Jacquinet fecit,
Marcou excudit'. One illustration, however,
simply states 'Marcou ex.' and the last one
'Marcou inuenit 1657 Iacq. scul'. It is difficult
to say to what extent these signatures justify
conclusions as to the nature of the collabora-
tion. It is most probable that Marcou represents
the practical knowledge of the gunsmith and
Jacquinet that of the artist and that this
co-operation parallels the actual work on the
firearms themselves.
Marcou's pattern book has been mentioned
already in connection with the decoration of
flintlocks in the 1630-50 period. His designs
cover a long period and are to all appearances
examples of what he saw and himself made
during the period he worked as master gun-
smith. This must have begun in the 1620s, that
is to say the last decade in which the wheel-lock
and snap-lock were common on French fire-
arms. It is not surprising that the sheets marked
'3' and '7' are devoted to wheel-locks. Of these
the latest is most French in character. As a type
it is quite typical of the 1620s, even earlier, but
the naturalistic flowers of the decoration only
became usual in arms decoration during the
following decade. The same flowers are also
found on sheet '3' and in the same place, viz.
on the lock-plate. This is large and broad
behind the wheel and provides for the mount-
ing of the mainspring, on the usual German
135
Flintlock
Fig. j. Gunsmith Francois Marcou. Portrait by R. Ochon. Original in Staatlicbe
Kunstbibliothek, Berlin (O. S. 826).
principle, on the plate instead of in the stock.
We have found this construction applied earlier
on a gun that in other respects is otherwise quite
French, viz. that signed by Jean Henequin of
Metz in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum,
Munich (PI. 104). In other features, such as the
monster's head at the rear of the lock-plate and
also the sculptural treatment of the neck and
jaws of the cock, Marcou's sheet '3' resembles
Jean Henequin's gun and its engraved orna-
136
ment. The marked angularity of the butt on the
same sheet, with its staff — like reinforcement of
the comb, is also a feature which Marcou must
have encountered in his earlier days as 'maitre
arquebusier'.
All the flindocks illustrated by Marcou have
flat plates, and with one exception, angular pans
and frizzens. They are thus of the earlier type
which was obsolescent when the pattern book
was published. This applies also to much of
Patterns and decoration during the middle of the seventeenth century
the decoration. Trailing vines and running
scrolls with figures extending over the whole
surface of the lock ornament the two wheel-
lock designs already mentioned, two flintlock
plates on sheets '10' and 'n' and several of the
cocks. Complete scenes are to be found on
sheet V (PL 111:3), on sheet '9' and on the
penultimate unnumbered sheet. The smaller
groups of figures are represented on sheets '4',
'8', and '12' (PI. 112), each with a Minerva or
Mars seated on a trophy. Various trends are
represented on the same sheet in the earlier
flintlock designs, as on sheet '12' (PL 112:1).
Here the cock is embellished with floral
running scrolls and grotesques. The lock-plate
is decorated with a landscape behind the cock
and in front with Mars and trophies. The
recessed rear end is decorated with a grotesque
mask, a detail which is often repeated in this
position about the middle of the seventeenth
century. To the left of this same sheet beneath
the lock is a warrior's head shown in profile
with a strange, conical neck and an equally
peculiar spiny visor extension of the pseudo-
antique helmet. Similar heads are also to be
found on other sheets of the series but only in
conjunction with flintlocks. These peculiar
heads are explained if one compares them with
the tumblers on the locks of the Livrust-
kammare's Thomas set (PL 21 -.4). The warrior
heads are, in fact, suggestions for decoration of
the flindock tumblers.
The decoration on the lock-plate on Marcou's
sheet '2' (PL 111:3) has a Latin sentence 'non
sink perire ars' as have the monogrammist
m.n.'s sheets in Vienna, several of Philippe
Cordier Daubigny's pattern sheets and the
lock on the gun in the Livrustkammare Thomas
set (PL 22:1). In view of this, and also of the
scene with Arion on the dolphin's back that
covers the entire lock-plate, the lock can be
attributed to the most archaic period repre-
sented in the album. It is true that a steel-spring
of the 1640 type has been inserted, but as the
plate, contrary to the usual practice is engraved
underneath it, the spring must have been
mounted as a modernization as are the broad-
ened rear points of the lock-plates all through
the album 3 . In this instance an ordinary recessed
rear tip with floral decoration is attached as an
alternative, but the plate has a monster's head
which clearly indicates that it is intended to be
executed in relief like the cock designed as a
dolphin and the steel as a scallop-shell. As an
alternative there is also a cock with a neck
chiselled as a mermaid. Such details are to be
found on seven more sheets, all unmistakably
related to the earlier, large figured group with
relief decoration dealt with in chapter six. This
frequent occurrence of chiselled decoration in
a pattern book published by a Parisian gun-
smith is one of the weightiest reasons for
considering that the relief decorated group
might be French. This very group in western
European gunmaking belongs to a fashion
which endured for a generation. It is an
expression of the interest of that age in relief
decoration as a whole, like the sculptured ebony
cupboards that constitute a parallel phenom-
enon. It is known that some of these cupboards
were made in the Netherlands, others in
Flanders and others yet again in Paris either by
immigrant foreigners or Frenchmen who had
studied abroad 4 .
For the dating of these cupboards we have
an interesting document in the example which
is traditionally said to have been presented by
Louis XIV to Count Nils Bielke and is
now preserved at Sturefors in the province
of Ostergotland, Sweden (PL 114) 5 . The initial
'L'[ouis] is to the right on a top drawer and the
coats of arms of France and Navarre under the
open crown for 'les enfants de France'. To the
left there is a figure with the French royal
crown. The outsides of the doors are decorated
with dolphins below royal French crowns in
three places. The cupboard must therefore refer
to a dauphin named Louis. This cannot be 'le
grand dauphin' (b. 1661) whose monogram
would have been crowned by the dauphin's
crown confirmed in 1662. Our only choice
then is the royal donor himself as dauphin.
This gives as the dating of this cupboard the
period 1638-43, that is the same period as the
earlier large figured group of the relief decor-
ated flintlock arms.
Hunting scenes are such common motives
and their component features so very much
137
Flintlock
alike that too great importance should not be
attached to agreement between them. It is,
however, worth noticing that the longitudinal
reliefs on some of the earlier guns in the group
(PI. 40:1) resemble friezes with hunting scenes
on Dutch furniture. A similar frieze will be
found on a chest reproduced in Michel's History
of Art horn the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 6 .
Other firearms mentioned above have the
chiselled ornament enclosed in auricular car-
touches which have not the diffuse, flabby-
forms of the Dutch or the German auricular
ornament, but are more concentrated, firm and
symmetrical. Information as to their source
can be obtained by comparing Lucas Kilian's
Newes Schildtbyhlin, published at Augsburg in
1 610, with Diferents compartiements et Chapiteaux
engraved by Tavernier and published by P.
Partiette in Paris in 1619 7 . The latter is a copy
of the former, though with sheets added at
the end in which the cartouches are formed like
rolled or gathered cloth, firmer and simpler.
The restraining effect of French taste can be
discerned in them. In French Louis XIII
architecture these restrained auricular car-
touches are a common feature. A similar firm
and simplified form will be found in the
chiselled group on the gun in the Livrust-
kammare (PL 40:4), presented by Charles
Gustavus Wrangel to Charles X Gustavus, on
the gun No. M 1 5 in La Sala dArmi in Venice,
and on the gun No. D 316 in the Kunsthis-
torisches Museum, Vienna (PL 40:3).
We have seen how exacdy the same figure
groups appear in Baroque cartouches and
Classicizing oval frames composed of leaves
and flowers (Livrustkammare No. 1298. PL
41:2, and Skokloster, the Wrangel Armoury
No. 112). The smith working in iron has
followed the general trend towards Classical
ideals. In both cases the scheme of decoration
is the same, with a vigorous acanthus leaf at
the breech, rows of cartouches or medallions
one above the other, a chiselled area inlaid with
silver in front of these surrounded by rings and
foliage wreaths and, finally punched ornament.
This design is very much the same in the entire
relief decorated group, if we except those fire-
arms with longitudinal relief decoration. This
138
is most apparent in those with large figures, but
it can also be discovered in those with small
figures, for example on the barrels of the pistols
in the Livrustkammare (PL 47:2, 4), and tight
wreaths with flowers, though much wider
apart, are to be found surrounding the heroic
scenes on the pommels (PL 48:4). The small
figured reliefs serve as a connecting link on
one of the guns in Vienna (Inv. No. D 316.
PL 40:3).
The part of the barrel in front of the car-
touches is, as a rule, spirally twisted (PL 40) on
the earlier arms. This is in keeping with the
Baroque fashion of turned and spiral columns.
On the later ones this portion is given a firm,
symmetrical decoration with the exception of
gun No. D 362 in Vienna. In this case we find a
feature that has no French association, a sym-
metrical running scroll (PL 41:3). Purely
French are, on the other hand, the lines formed
by inlaid twisted silver wires on the stocks of
the garniture of gun and pistols in the Wrangel
Armoury at Skokloster (Nos. 112, 67). They
belong to the sub group with large figures
framed by foliage and floral wreath. A similar
setting of thin lines is also to be found on the
Livrustkammare gun No. 1297 (PL 37:3), but
in that case with inlaid horn. The relief decor-
ated flintlock arms can in this way also be
connected with France or her immediate
neighbourhood.
The lock-plates are decorated either with
scenes covering the entire plate or with
individual figures in front of the cock and
beneath the pan. This position is occupied by
the figure of a warrior in Roman armour seated
on a trophy of arms on the Livrustkammare
gun just mentioned. The same feature is to be
found on Marcou's sheet '12' (PL 42:1 and
112:1). The mermaid on the cock is the same
as that on the separate cock of sheet '2'. The
antique mask of the steel is very similar to a
steel on sheet '8'. For the grinning monster's
head at the rear of the lock-plate approximate
prototypes are to be found on the engravings.
The cock-screw in the shape of a vase is
identical with that on the lock of sheet '12'.
This indicates that they belong approximately
to the same period. The fact that so many
Patterns and decoration during the middle of the seventeenth century
elements in the decoration of a gun are to be
found in a Parisian work on gunsmiths'
ornament is more than a mere coincidence. It
presupposes a definite connection. Whether it
means that Marcou was the maker of the gun
must, however, remain uncertain in the absence
of definite evidence.
The choice of motifs for the figure groups
varies considerably. The animal friezes have
already been adequately dealt with. Playing
children are a common motif in the art of this
period (Francois Duquesnoy), and the same
applies to the winged figures in scrolls. All
this is to be seen on the barrel and lock of the
gun No. M 14 in La Sala d'Armi in Venice (PL
40:2). The four cartouches on No. M 15 in the
same museum contain scenes from the story
of the prodigal son, and the gun No. 1545 in
the Livrustkammare likewise shows in four
panels Hercules wrestling with Geryon, the
Lernean hydra and the Nemean lion as well as
a scene in which the demi god finds recreation
in pleasant company after his labours (PI. 41 :i).
In the foliage and floral wreaths we find
Renaissance versions of figures from Greek
mythology only, Leda and the Swan, Venus
and Amor, Bacchus, etc. On the gun No.
D 362 in Vienna, Venus is seen in the company
of Ceres and Bacchus, which, according to
Philippe Cordier Daubigny, is necessary for her
well being. In all of these instances the figures
are affected and elongated. It may of course be
mere chance that Venus in Etienne Delaunes'
allegorical series of the celestial bodies is so
similar to the female figures on the butt-plate
of Tojhus Museum gun No. B 661 (PI. 43 :z). It
may be, however, that this figure is a copy,
perhaps at second or third hand, of this very
engraving. For the sub group with small
figures, paintings or engravings with motifs
from contemporary history may have served.
The arms decorators in chiselled iron took
their ideas from some very heterogeneous
sources. The quality of their work also varies a
great deal and only rises to true heights in
exceptional cases.
The last sheet in Marcou (PI. 1 13 :i) belongs,
as has been pointed out above, to the group
which has been named after the firm of
Thuraine and Le Hollandois. This is also the
case with Berain's pattern book (PI. 117, 118)
'Diverses pieces tres utile pour les Arque-
buzieres . . .'. There are three editions, or at
any rate states of this. One of these editions
is dated 1659, another 1667. A third edition
comes in between these dates. 8 The complete
title (Fig. 4) of the edition of 1659 is as follows :
diverses pieces tres Vtile (sic.) pour les Arque-
buzieres Nouuellement Inuentes et Graues par
Jean Berain le Jeune et ce Vendent chez
lauteur a Paris Auec Priuilege du Roy 1659.'
The second edition has had its title changed to
\ . . et ce vendent chez le Blond Rue Saincts
Iacques a la Cloche d' Argent a Paris. Avec
Privilege de Roy'. The year 1667 has been
added to the third edition.
Weigert knows of seven sheets of this work
and the title. The Berlin copy, however (edit.
1 667)' and a copy in the Livrustkammare, the
latter without a title page, have two more
sheets, one of the same size as those included
in Weigert's list (120 x 168 mm), the other
193 X 323 mm. According to Guilmard the
whole series with nine sheets and tide is also
in the Bibliotheque de Paris (Bibliotheque
Nationale, Cabinet des Estampes) in volume
'Le 24' 10 .
Boeheim attributed a most important role
to Berain in the development of flindock fire-
arms and compared it with that of Aldegrever
in the Germany of his day. According to
Boeheim the credit for the transformation of
firearms after the invention of the flintlock
about the year 1635 was largely due to Berain.
As Berain was not a gunsmith but a draughts-
man it is only natural to find him associated
with the most famous masters such as Thurenne
and Reynier (i.e. Thuraine and Le Hollandois) 11 .
Weigert's research into Berain and his family
has now brought new light to bear upon the
part played by the famous French decorator in
gunmaking 12 . It can be observed that Berain
was born in 1640 and was consequently only
nineteen years old. The fact that Jean Berain
engaged in the decoration of arms at so early a
stage can be explained in a different and much
more reasonable way. His father and paternal
grandfather were gunsmiths (cf. p. 79). It is
J 39
Flintlock
Fig. 4. Title page of Berain' s pattern book for gunsmiths of i6r$. Original
in Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
chiefly as a professional decorator of arms that
Jean Berain appeared before the public in his
youth with his pattern book and then less as
an originator than as a copyist of an existing
stock of designs. Borrowings from numerous
sources can be found in his sheets, among them
some from the group decorated in relief.
Pseudo-Classical influence is so pronounced in
Berain's work that the florid Baroque nature of
the relief decorated group had to yield to a
lighter style. Berain's reliefs take the form of
140
portraits, lion masks or flowers in sculptural
treatment on the heads of the jaw-screws, and
of leaves, masks or grotesque figures on cocks,
steels and on the rear point of the lock-plates.
The empty triangular spaces caused by the
splitting and folding of the ends of the trigger-
guards are filled by foliage, scrolls or gro-
tesques. This same ornament is also to be found
on the steels and has invaded the outer edge of
the lower arm of the steel-springs 18 . There are
also pure Louis XIII cartouches and, without
Plate 119.
France, Paris.
1685 (1705).
1. Claude Simonin, P/usieurs pieces et ornements darquebu^erie
. . . Paris 1685. 1. Title page; Ex. Berlin, Staatliche Kunst-
bibliothek O.S. 840:1. 2. Sheet from same work, Ed.
1705 ; Ex. Stockholm, Livrustkammaren. From Foulc
Collection.
Plate 1 20.
7n 1 J**
nin- In- et-J~ccii
France, Paris.
1685 (1705).
Simonin, two sheets from same series as PL 119:2.
Plate 121.
i? ■/,,!,/ 'i^JSfi^rauci Pa^la^r Sim»nll£ff*f«'* <fVWtSm«T»n fis B.lW»'wSf«* ^JJ»
SiMMirn eUn ••/ ftiiltJntt Jfiud
France, Paris.
1693.
Claude and Jacques Simonin, Vlusieurs pikes et autres
ornements . . . Paris 1693; Ex. Berlin, Staatliche Kunst-
bibliothek O.S. 840:2.
Plate 122.
Netherlands, Amsterdam
and Germany, Nurem-
berg.
1692 and c. 1700.
1. Pierre Schenck, Verschejde stucken en cieraden . . .
Amsterdam 1692; Ex. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Copper-
plate Cabinet. 2. Jakob von Sandrart, Plusieurs pieces et
ornements darquebu^erie . . . Nuremburg, undated; Ex.
Dresden, Kupferstichkabinet B 115 8.
Patterns and decoration during the middle of the seventeenth century
any specific function, a pair of figures in the
spirit of Callot. Large acanthus leaves also
figure among the pattern subjects. We have
seen them on contemporary Dutch stocks,
both in wood and ivory. They also occur on
the only gun stock illustrated by Berain,
which is on the large sheet (PI. 118). They also
appear at the ends of the trigger-guards from
which they spring in chiselled or engraved
rendering. They belong to the Classicizing
elements in Berain ornament, like the gro-
tesques which are to be seen on almost every
sheet, arranged 'to fit into different spaces.
The ornament in Berain's pattern book
includes slender running scrolls which emerge
from a fuller ornament and usually terminate
in a scroll of diminishing width, a leaf or a
flower with a row of beads. This also becomes
thinner as it proceeds. Figures are inserted in
these line ornaments. The latter are based on
the technique of metal inlays in the wooden
stocks, which was practised by Marin Le
Bourgeoys and his school. It was probably
common on better quality French firearms
during the earlier half of the seventeenth
century.
Among the details of firearms on Berain's
pattern sheets we find such ornament on the
side-plate and on the butt of the gun shown on
the large sheet. The thin lines rise from a mask
on the side of the butt and surround a medallion
in the centre from which a rib extends to the
thumb-plate.
The butt of the magnificent Wender gun in
the Livrustkammare (Pis. 59, 60), the lock of
which is signed 'Le Conte a Paris' and the
inlays 'Berain fecit', is lavishly decorated in
the same way. Symmetrical trailing vines which
change into the familiar slender spirals rise
from a mask (cf. PI. 60:4) flanked by Venus
and Minerva on one side of the butt, and by
monkeys on the other. The spirals pass through
a floral crown on the one side and verge upon
a basket of fruit on the other. They then pass
round a medallion with a reclining Minerva or
Mars. The medallions are set at right angles to
the rest of the design as in the pattern: the
design then continues up towards a canopy-like
frame with Apollo on one side playing to the
animals among vines and trailing scrolls, and
Amor on the other side grasping his bow and
arrow between seated cupids. The ornament
continues to the small of the butt with bunches
of fruit hanging in ribbons from grotesque
arabesques, crowns and — at the rear point of
the lock-plate and in the corresponding position
on the left side — grotesque masks in the Louis
XIII style. There is another grotesque mask on
the small of the butt behind the tang of the
barrel. Below this the arabesques meet from
the sides, the nose of the butt is covered by an
acanthus leaf underneath which Fama rides on
an eagle holding a medallion with the initials
'l d g r' (Ludovicus Dei Gratia Rex). Below
that again we have arabesques and, finally in
profile, grotesque masks on both sides of the
short tang of the butt-plate. The fore-stock is
adorned on the one side with groups of alle-
gorical figures and 'Schweif' ornaments. On
the other side the corresponding space is partly
covered by the ramrod.
The lock (PI. 60:1) has engraved decoration
except for a chiselled and gilt lion's mask on
the cock-screw. The decoration consists of
arabesques of leaves which terminate in gro-
tesque figures on and behind the cock. On the
recessed rear tip of the lock-plate an owl is
perched on a pendant swag.
The decoration of the barrel and butt-plate
(PL 59:21, 60:2,3) is inlaid with gold on a
ground that was originally blued. The upper-
most planes of the chambers are embellished
with longitudinal groups of figures, those on
the sides with grotesque scrolls enclosing
sportsmen and game. A sixteen sided section
decorated with arabesques within lined borders
follows. On one barrel, in front of the chamber,
is the figure of Minerva in an oval cartouche
surrounded by symmetrical foliage arabesques
emerging from eagle heads and a basket of
fruit. The longitudinal lines extend right up to
the muzzle interrupted three times by groups of
symmetrical 'Schweif' ornaments, and around
the fore-sight by foliage scrolls.
The butt-plate is oval flattened from the
sides and ends and is bordered with trailing
vines. The remaining part is covered by sym-
metrical scrolls with grotesque figures similar
141
Flintlock
to those of the inlaid work of the stock,
although the technique has necessitated wider
lines and pearls.
The decoration of the butt-plate and barrels
in front of the chambers and around the butt
affords interesting similarities to that on a
number of the sheets in a pattern book for
locksmiths. Its title-page reads 'diverses pieces
de Serruriers inuentees par Hugues Brisuille
Maitre Serrurier AParis Et grauez par Jean
Berain. AParis chez N. Langlois rue St.
Jacques a la Victoire avec Privileges du Roy'.
Another edition was published by I. Mariette 14 .
This latter is represented in the National
Museum, Stockholm; it lacks the dedication
which, according to Weigert, introduced the
example in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris,
issued by Langlois. It has, however, more
sheets than the eleven apart from the dedication
which are known to Weigert.
It would be very interesting if it could be
proved that the Brisville book, the Berain
pattern plates for gunsmiths and the decoration
on the Wender gun in the Livrustkammare
were executed by the same hand and that this
was Jean Berain's (b. 1640, d. 171 1). Agreement
in type between certain ornaments in the lock-
smith patterns and on the gun confirm such an
assumption and likewise the fact that the side-
plate on the gun is of practically identical
design to that on the sheet (PI. 117:1) next to
the tide in the gunsmith s pattern book
(Weigert No. 2). The signature on several
sheets in both engraved pattern books is like-
wise identical (berain f.). Weigert considers
that all three can be attributed to the same
person 15 . One cannot help observing, however,
that the Brisville book was engraved by a less
sure hand than that which was responsible for
the gunsmith's patterns and the inlays on the
barrel and stock of the gun. Weigert dates the
Brisville-Berain book to 1663 from a portrait
of Hugues Brisville with this date, which is
bound in with the copy in the Bibliotheque
Nationale, Paris. This seems to be convincing.
The dating of the three works would then be:
the gunsmith patterns 1659, the locksmith
patterns 1663 and the gun the beginning of the
1 660s. Is it, however, likely that a person who
obviously had a thorough mastery of his
subject in 1659 should four years later show
weakness in technique and that between the
ages of twenty and twenty-five, should be
familiar with iron and silver engraving, etching
and gold damascening in a way that would
otherwise call for both lengthy and thorough
training? Documents that have hitherto been
found provide very little guidance in answering
this question. But it surely seems more prob-
able to attribute the decoration of the gun to
an earlier generation of the family, to assume
that the patterns for gunsmiths were executed
under the supervision of this earlier generation,
and also that the pattern engravings of the year
1663 derived from works by the locksmith
Brisville.
On the whole, the decoration of arms both
in Berain's patterns and also on the gun, in
spite of all their technical skill, are retarded in
style in comparison with the new Classicizing
style that was rapidly gaining ground in prac-
tically all spheres of art in Paris in the 1660s.
The same applies also to the few surviving
arms in the Thuraine and Le Hollandois style.
The earliest known representatives of this style
are the magnificent pistols in the Historisch.es
Museum, Dresden (Inv. No. H. 19. PI. 55),
mentioned above. They have been dated here
to the 165 os, which is confirmed by the
decoration set in a cartouche composed of thin
lines. They are similar to the Duclos firearms
of the 1630s; they also retain the Baroque
cartouche enclosing the signature in the middle
of the lock-plate. On the barrels — one is, it is
true, a later copy 16 — the chambers are embel-
lished with symmetrical 'Schweif' ornaments
growing out of vases. Symmetrical 'Schweif'
ornaments of a type which might well have
been found at the beginning of the century are
applied in damascening further up the barrels.
The flowers on slender stalks of the later Louis
XIII style appear on the sides of the butts. All
this ornament is very firm and strictly sym-
metrical. It is firmly rooted in the Baroque but
aspires to Classical ideals.
This aspiration is still more manifest in the
decoration of the gun signed 'Le Couvreux au
Palais Royal' in the Musee de l'Armee, Paris
142
Patterns and decoration during the middle of the seventeenth century
(PI. 5 8). It finds expression in the adoption of
archaic Renaissance grotesques in Etienne
Delaune's style on the chamber on the barrel
tang and ramrod-pipes. It is very clearly illus-
trated in the ornament along the edge of the
butt in which strictly symmetrical Baroque
foliage forms a rhythmic frieze over a base
formed by lines and a beaded staff. The inlay
on the comb of the butt is a brilliant example of
naturalistic flowers on slender arabesques com-
bined with grotesques. This also applies to the
ornament on the small of the butt opposite the
lock. On the lock are figures in Callot's style
and grotesque masks in relief, and finally,
engraved Classical medallions in rows with
laurel crowned Roman heads in profile.
The same trend characterizes the ornament
of firearms signed 'Thuraine et Le Hollandois'
(PI. 56 and 57). It can be assumed that these
masters, attached as they were to the French
royal house, manufactured arms which were
just as richly decorated as those shown in their
pattern books. Unfortunately none are known.
The two guns with which we have become
acquainted are considerably simpler and con-
tribute nothing new to the discussion. The
inlaid work on the chamber of the one in
Copenhagen (Inv. No. B 663. PI. 57:2) shows
slender, symmetrical arabesques adorned with
flowers growing out of a grotesque mask and
terminating in front with rows of pearls. The
material in this case is silver. Acanthus leaves
and pearls make up a sculptured crown in
front of the chamber. This sculptural treatment
is also applied to the triangular openings of the
trigger-guard, finials on the cock, steel and
steel-spring. The Classical element is discernible
but occurs more frequendy in the pattern book
(PI. 115 :z and 116), 'Plusieurs Models des plus
nouuelles manieres qui sont en usage en l'Art
de Arquebuzerie auec ses Ornements les plus
Conuenables Le tout tire des Ouurages de
Thurages de Thuraine et le Hollandois Arque-
buziers Ordinaires de sa Maieste et graue par
C. Jacquinet. Et se Vend le present liure Chez
les Autheurs auec privilege'. The edition with
this title is probably the oldest. There is one
copy in the Livrustkammare, Stockholm. There
are two others, one dated 1660, in which the
title-page is missing — it constituted the basis
for a new edition published by Bernhard
Quaritch of London in 1888 — and another in
which the tide after Jacquinet's name con-
tinues 'A Paris chez N. Langlois rue St. Iacque
a la Victoire au coin de la rue de la Parchemin-
erie avec Privilege du roy'. All the following
sheets in the last mentioned edition, of which
there is a copy in the National Museum,
Stockholm (Receuil d'ornement et d'architec-
ture), bear the publisher's name and address
'N. Langlois rue St. Jacques' and are numbered
from the title-page, which is No. V, to No.
'11', inclusive. Guilmard knew of a copy of this
latter and one of 1660 in the Bibliotheque
Nationale as well as a copy in the Berard
Collection containing three sheets with interiors
of rooms and workshops and verses on the
apprentice Janot, and also signatures (cf.
p. 80) 17 . Boeheim only knew the edition of
1660 18 . The picture of a flintlock which he
reproduces on p. 177 in Meister der Waffen-
schmiedekunst with the statement that it is taken
from this edition, is in fact the last sheet in
Marcou's book, signed and dated 1657. The
mistake can be readily understood as the form
and style of this lock closely resemble those
shown in several sheets of the Thuraine and Le
Hollandois book. This in turn implies that the
style as a whole must be dated well into the
1650s.
The title quoted above (PL 115:1) is set in an
architectural frame with a garland of fruits and
seated Minerva and Diana, with a ruined wall
behind. Then come the three sheets of interiors,
next ten sheets numbered V to '10' and finally
two unnumbered, one with a right and a left-
hand back action lock, etc., the other reproduc-
ing, among other things, a pistol pommel, rows
of foliage ornaments closely related to those on
the butt of the Le Couvreux gun in Paris,
decoration for the small of a butt, etc. There is
no need to repeat what has already been said
about the relief ornament, naturalistic flowers
on slender stalks, Baroque cartouches and
Baroque grotesque masks. It is more important
to point out the clear Classical style that distin-
guishes the ornament on the sheet marked V
on a pistol butt and the small of a butt. There is
143
Flintlock
very similar ornament on sheet £ io', also on a
pistol butt. This ornament has lost the lively
quality of its predecessor. In both cases we are
dealing with copies, but if there can be any
talk of individuality this applies to the earlier
decoration.
It is difficult to say to what extent the two
pattern books of Berain and of Thuraine and Le
Hollandois influenced the decoration of fire-
arms. There are seldom direct points of agree-
ment between them and extant weapons. It
may be mentioned that a grotesque figure
holding a shield with the signature 'Cunet a
Lyon' on the lock of a gun with chiselled
decoration, in private possession in Sweden,
occupies the same place on sheet '9' in the
Thuraine and Le Hollandois book. Also that a
huntsman, whose legs develop into foliate
arabesques, is to be found between cock and
steel-spring on the large sheet in the Berain
series as well as on a gun in the Wrangel
Armoury at Skokloster by 'David Rene a
Heydelberg' (No. 100. PI. 62:5). It can also be
pointed out that Italian flindocks dating from
the decades after the 1650s follow the Berain
book. The pistols in PI. 63 in the Livrustkam-
mare 19 can be quoted as an example. The con-
nection might well be investigated and give
interesting results.
Even if direct borrowings cannot be proved
it is nevertheless interesting to observe that
certain features of this style are still to be found
well into the next group of forms. The plan for
the decoration of the lock-plates according to
Thuraine and Le Hollandois is as follows: on
the rear point an ornament or a mask, in relief
or engraved; this is so arranged that the bottom
is towards the point and the top towards the
cock. Where this ornament is chiselled in relief
it is often coupled with an engraved part near-
est the cock. On the lock-plate between the cock
and the steel-spring there is, as a rule, a car-
touche or a figure so placed that the top is
towards the flashpan. This plan is usual in the
1660s and is also met with until about 1680.
Examples are the pistols by Champion of Paris
(Livrustkammare Inv. Nos. 3886, 3887. PI.
73:3). The pistols Nos. 4072 and 4073 by
Piraube of Paris (PI. 75:1) and the de luxe gun by
Gruche of Paris (Munich, Bayerisches National-
museum 13/588. PI. 77:1) are arranged in this
way.
The inlaid work on the stocks indicates a
strong professional tradition. In comparison
with the inlays of the beginning of the century
the ornament as a rule is flaccid, but we also
find brilliant exceptions such as the inlaid work
on the Wender gun in the Livrustkammare
signed by Berain. This decoration, too, con-
tains quite a number of features taken over from
previous periods. The inlay on Louis XIV's
gun by De Foullois le jeune in the Pauilhac
Collection in Paris (PL 61 :6) is an example of
the flaccid forms, and the stock maker who
helped Des Granges to decorate a pair of breech-
loading pistols with turn-off barrels (Nos. 1699,
1700) in the Livrustkammare was unable
to maintain his art at a 'living' level. This kind
of inlaid work is found in a better state of pre-
servation on the pistols by De Foullois le
jeune Nos. 163 1, 1632 in the Livrustkammare
(PI. 72) and on the breech-loading gun No.
1345 by the same master in the same collection.
It is also found on the Champion pistols (PL 73)
just mentioned and in the Nationalmuseum
(13/588) and Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Vienna (Waffensammlung No. A 1674. PL 77).
With these firearms we have entered the 1680s
and approach the type of decoration which
characterized the French flindock arms at the
close of the seventeenth century and the
beginning of the eighteenth century.
Notes to Chapter Twelve
1 . [Lotz] , Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung der
Staatlichen Runstbibliothek, Berlin. P. 121.
2. Guilmard, Les maitres ornemanistes. P. 86.
No. 19.
3. Dr L. has written in pencil in the margin of
his copy: 'does not agree' Translator.
25/3/63.
4. Michel, Histoire de Part. T. VI: 2. Pp. 916,
917.
5 . Cf . Svenska slott och herresdten [Swedish Man-
sions and Country houses). Bd. IV: 1. Pp. 8, 9.
6 Michel, Histoire de Part. T. VI. P. 916.
Fig. 599.
144
Patterns and decoration during the middle of the seventeenth century
ii
12.
7. (Lotz), Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung der
Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek, Berlin. P. 8.
No. 31. P. 47. No. 307.
8. Weigert, Jean I Berain. T. II. Pp. 29-32.
9. [Lotz], Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung der
Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek, Berlin. P. 122.
No. 832.
10. Guilmard, Les maitres ornemanistes. P. 89.
No. 27.
Boeheim, Meister der Waffenschmiedekunst.
Pp. 15-17.
Weigert, Jean I Berain. P. 1 . P. 4 ff. Cf. also
the same author, 'Berain-Pistols in the
Tojhus Museum'. Vaabenhistoriske Aar-
bo'ger, II. 1937 — 39. Pp. 68-72.
13. These ornaments of the Berain book, like
other patterns in this style, and the com-
pleted arms are closely akin to contem-
porary goldsmiths work. Legare, Liure des
Ouurages d'Orfeurerie contains very similar
ornament. [Lotz], Katalog der Ornaments-
tichsammlung der Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek,
Berlin. P. 122. No. 827. A ring in the
Livrustkammare which can be dated to the
mid seventeenth century actually has such
ornaments close to the inset stone. Those
ornaments probably originated from
'Schwarzornament' with enamel omitted.
14. Weigert, Jean I Berain. T. II. Pp. 32-38.
15. Weigert, Jean I Berain. T. I. Pp. 113,
114. The author states in it that the gun is
preserved in the Nordiska Museum. If he
means the actual building his statement is
correct. The gun belongs, however, to the
Livrustkammare. The information sought
by W. as regards Louis XIV's gift to
Charles XI is in the French Ministry of
Foreign Affairs archives.
16. The original barrel exploded. Inventar
Pistolen Cammer, 171 7. No. 338. Dresden
Historisches Museum. Contributed by Dr
Erna v. Watzdorf.
17. Guilmard, Les maitres ornemanistes. P. 86.
No. 18.
18. Boeheim, Meister der Waffenschmiedekunst. P.
178.
19. Livrustkammare. Vagledning 1921. P. 89.
No. 709.
145
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Patterns and decoration from the Classical
Louis XIV style to Empire , inclusive
mfter colbert assumed control follow-
\ ing Fouquet's fall in 1661 and after the
J_ J^ death of Mazarin the applied arts in
France entered upon a new phase. They were
made to serve Colbert's economic policy and
figured more prominently than before as a
background for the king's person. The central-
isation which characterizes Louis XIV's regime
in all spheres merged the arts and crafts in the
French Academy of Painting and Sculpture.
Fouquet's right hand man, Charles Le Brun,
hastily entered the king's service after the fall
of his chief and became the leading personage
in the Academy as well as in a newly established
stronghold of the applied arts. This was set up
in 'Les Gobelins' under the name of 'Manu-
facture Roy ale du mobilier de la couronne'. It
had the task of supplying the royal palaces with
furniture and fixtures, to begin with those
already existing and then the new ones,
Versailles and Marly being the most important.
Le Brun continued his task as decorator of both
these and several private palaces including the
Hotel Lambert and Vaux le Vicomte. He had
a large staff to help him in his multifarious
tasks, among whom were several of the great
names in contemporary French art. Under Le
146
Brun's management the French applied arts
became strikingly homogeneous. The Classiciz-
ing style which resulted from Le Brun's
activities was not effective in gun making until
the 1 680s, but the arms decorators were
greatly influenced by the new style as early as
the latter half of the 1660s, and Paris made
firearms of the 1670s display the Louis XIV
style as developed by Le Brun.
We know that the colony of artists in 'Les
Gobelins' which was directed by Le Brun
delivered patterns to the artisans in the Louvre.
The gunsmiths may also have enjoyed this
privilege. Nothing is known of this, nor was it
necessary since the decoration of flintlock fire-
arms was, as a rule, quite simple in comparison
with the wainscotting of rooms, furniture
inlays and tapestry borders. It was, therefore,
a simple matter for an expert gunmaker to
choose his patterns from the store of ornament
which had met with His Majesty's approval.
Traditional forms accompanied the new fashion
well into the 1660s.
A characteristic feature of the lock decoration
of the Classical Louis XIV period is that the
ornament behind the cock was intended to be
seen when the firearm was horizontal. Apart
Patterns and decoration from the Classical Louis XIV style to Empire
from ornament in the Classical style of the
period we find figure scenes combined with
motifs from Classical antiquity. Ornament like
that on 1336 in the Livrustkammare by De
Foullois le jeune (PI. 70:1) constitutes an
exception. It is composed of grotesques in the
style of Hieronymus Bosch. Earlier designs of
this type were also used for the flat, engraved,
and pierced side-plates which were set flush in
the stock (cf. PI. 68). These were succeeded by
other forms at the beginning of the 1670s.
The gun signed by 'Piraube au gallerie a
Paris' in the Livrustkammare (PI. 71) is a good
but not very luxurious example of the Classical
period. Its lock-plate is embellished with simple
grotesque sprays in an engraved border
following the edges of the lock-plate and cock.
The latter is chiselled with a simplified version
of an acanthus leaf, and a simple, symmetrical
foliage ornament, also in relief, decorates the
front of the steel. Symmetrical, engraved
foliage issuing from a grotesque female figure
is the basic element in the decoration on the
chamber of the barrel, and firm, symmetrical
sprays are spread around the back-sight and
the thumb-plate. The side-plate is in the form
of a crawling serpent with a cloven tail and tiny
foliate excrescences. This shape is determined
by function and has no actual prototype in
contemporary French pattern books.
The description given in Chapter Nine
explains the difference between the forms of
the 1 670s with the straight tang on the butt-
plate of the guns and the jaw-screw heads com-
pressed from above and those of the 1680s with
the serpentine butt-plate tangs and drop shaped
jaw-screw heads. As regards decoration the
distinction is not so clear. For these decades,
and subsequently as long as the rounded forms
held their own against the flat Berain ones, the
Simonin albums are representative. The first
one (PI. 119, 120) appeared in 1685 under the
title 'PLVSIEVRS PIECES ET ORNEMENTS Dar-
quebuzerie Les plus en Vsage tire des Ouurages
de Laurent le Languedoc Arquebuziers Du
Roy et Dautres Ornement Inuente et graue Par
Simonin et Se Vend Ledit livre Chez ledit
Simonin a Lantree du Faubour St Anthoine
A Paris Auec Priuilege du Roy 1685'. The title
page is unnumbered. The other pages are
numbered '2' to '8'.
As in the case of the pattern album engraved
by Jacquinet after Marcou and Thuraine and
Le Hollandois, Simonin's album was copied
from Le Languedoc's oeuvres and should
really be listed under the latter's name. The
reason why the gunsmiths' names have been
placed before the engravers' when dealing with
the earlier patterns is: these patterns differ so
fundamentally from one another that treatment
of them in Jacquinet's name would cause un-
certainty and misunderstanding. As Simonin's
work comprises two albums in the same con-
sistent style taken from the works of anony-
mous masters and as most of the sheets are
signed 'Simonin in [venit] et fecit', both
albums can be appropriately presented in his
name.
Boeheim states of Simonin, whose Christian
name according to the later album was Claude
(he died not later than 1693), that he was assist-
ant to Languedoc ('Er bediente sich fur seine
Arbeiten des beruhmten Zeichners und Gra-
veurs Claude Simonin . . .' He availed himself
in his work of the renowned Draughtsman and
Engraver Claude Simonin . . .)*. This collabora-
tion probably also included the manufacture of
arms. Laurent becomes 'Laurence' and 1685
'1684' in Boeheim 2 . The album is represented
in the Bibliotheque Nationale (Cabinet des
Estampes, Vol. 'Le 24') 3 , the Staatliche Kunst-
bibliothek, Berlin (O. S. 840:1)* and elsewhere.
The title (PI. 119:1) is framed within a
Louis XIII cartouche with grotesque masks at
the foot and top and is flanked by elaborate
trophies and two captives. The cartouche is
surmounted by a distinguished horseman who,
judging by the monogram and dolphin on the
trumpet banners of the two flanking angels,
may represent 'Le grand Dauphin'.
The second album, which bears Simonin's
name (PI. 121), appeared in 1693 and was sold
by Claude Simonin's widow. His son Jacques
seems to have carried on his father's business.
Boeheim states that this album does not deal
with weapons ('Aus einem anderen das Waffen-
fach nicht beriihrenden Kupferstichwerke von
selbem [Simonin] 'Les plus beaux ouvrages de
H7
Flintlock
Paris' erfahren wir' . . . From another set of
engravings not concerned with firearms by
the same (Simonin) ... we learn) 5 . This
statement is surprising as the nature of the
publication is evident from the actual title:
'plvsievrs pieces et avtres Ornaments pour
les Arquebuziers et Les brizures demontee et
Remontee Le tous designe graue par Simonin
et des plus beaux Ouurages de paris Ce Vend
Chez le Veufiie a L' entree du faubourg St Anth-
oine A Paris A l'enseignei du Cabinet a fleurs
avec privilege 1 69 3.' In this instance too the
title is framed (PI. 121 :i) by a cartouche flanked
by trophies and finished off at the top by a smaller
cartouche enclosing a fight between horsemen,
at the foot by a grotesque masque and two
cornucopiae with flowers. In the lower corner
is a line giving the following information: 'Le
tout dessigne et grauee Par Claude Simonin et
Jacques Simonin Son fils auec Priulege de Roy.'
The title-page is unnumbered, the others are
numbered '2' to '11'. Pages '2' to '11' are
chiefly devoted to details of gun locks, the
other designs mosdy to ornament. There is a
copy in the Staadiche Kunstbibliothek, Berlin
(O. S. 84o:2) 6 , another in the BibliothequeNation-
ale, Paris (Cabinet des Estampes, Vol. 'Le 24')'.
In regard to their style both the Simonin
pattern albums are more or less alike. The
ornament is simpler than that of the patterns
of the period about 1660. This applies at least
to the first album. In the later one the need of
elaboration is given slightly stronger expres-
sion. In 1685 a few figures only and an occa-
sional simple spray decorate the locks. In 1693
there are battle scenes with several participants
and other representations covering larger sur-
faces. Both figures and ornament are more
delicate in the 1693 album than in that of 1685.
For ordinary weapons engraved decoration
may be expected on lock-plates and barrel, in
the case of the more elaborate ones decoration
in relief.
Festoons with or without grotesques are the
most usual ornaments on both metal parts and
stocks in these pattern books. Very similar
ornament is found in contemporary French
woven tapestry borders, but the gunsmiths
have, as a rule, simplified them. In the later
148
album the inlaid ornament common at the
close of the seventeenth century appears on
sheet '10' (pistol butt) and '11' (free ornament).
A very good example of what this ornament
looks like when executed is the inlay of the
stock on gun No. 735 in the Gewehrgalerie at
Dresden, signed 'A Paris par Le Languedoc'
(PI. 81:1). The decoration adopts the thin lines
necessitated by the technique and proceeds, in
contrast to the earlier butt decoration, asym-
metrically in the form of a dragon's tail on the
heel of the butt and spreads out across the
entire side of the butt in the form of a wide-
spreading arabesque. Both the dragon and a
serpent suspended enclosed within the folia-
tions are executed in thin wire. Leaves are
merely outlined. A new element has been
introduced into the arabesques, namely, an
oval with dashes which is both separated and
connected downwards and upwards by means
of dots.
The Simonin albums were issued at a time
when the manufacture of flindocks spread over
large parts of Europe. Both this fact, the
triumphal progress of the French style, and the
circumstance that these pattern books were
comparatively simple and suitable for general
use, led to their being copied outside France
in pirated editions. In France the plates for the
album of 1685 were taken over by the gun-
smith Languedoc. He issued a new edition in
1705, the title-page of which was changed as
regards the year and the penultimate line which
read as follows : 'et Se Vend Ledit Liure Chez
ledit Languedoc rue de bretagne aux marais.'
In all other respects the plates were untouched 8 .
In the Netherlands two publishers, Pieter
Schenck and Daniel de la Feuille, each issued
his 'replica edition' in 1692 of Simonin's 1685
album. The tide of the former's (PI. 122:1)
runs : 'verscheide stucken en cieraden Van
Roermakers gereedschap nieuweleghs uitge-
vonden en uit de vornaamste Meesters van
Europe getrocken. plvsievrs pieces et orne-
ments Darquebuzerie [N.B. the similarity to
the original], le plus nouellement Inuentees et
Tirees des premiers Maistres de 1' Europe Par
Pierre Schenk a Amsterdam 1692.' The tide is
surrounded by a cartouche crowned with the
Plate 123.
-V. SmmiJ jivurf C.T.K .
France, Paris. Nicolas Guerard, Diver ses pieces d'arquebuserie . . . Paris,
Early eighteenth century, undated; Berlin, Staatliche Kunstbibliothek O.S. 858 a.
Plate 124.
\J If.GucnrJ.ae. CPR.
Jf. Gurj.-tl «,£. CF.JR .
France, Paris.
Early eighteenth century.
Guerard, two sheets from same series as PL 123.
Plate 125.
I <y ■ r"
France, Paris.
(1710) 1715-22.
Claude Gillot, Nouveaux desseins d' arquebuserie . . . Paris,
undated; Ex. Stockholm, Royal Library.
Plate 126.
1 t
France, Paris and St. Lo.
1710-20S.
1 . Claude Gillor, red crayon drawing for Nouveaux desseins
d' ' arquebuserie . . . ; Paris, Musee des arts decoratifs. 2. Le
Conardel, pattern for weapon decorators; Ex. Berlin,
Staadiche Kunstbibliothek O.S. 861.
Plate 127.
France, Paris. De Lacollombe, pattern for weapon decorators;
c. 1700. Ex. Stockholm, Livrustkammaren. From Foulc
Collection.
France, Paris.
c. 1700, 1730.
De Lacollombe. 1. Sheet from same series as PL 127.
2. Nouveaux desseins d'arquebuseries . . . 1730. Title page;
From Foulc Collection.
Plate 129.
France, Paris.
1730.
De Lacollombe, Nouveaux desseins d'arquebuseries . . . Paris
1730; Ex. Stockholm, Livrustkammaren. From Foulc
Collection.
Plate 130.
France, Paris.
1743 and 1749.
De Marteau, designs for arms decorators; Ex. Stockholm,
Livrustkammaren. From Foulc Collection.
Patterns and decoration from the Classical Louis XIV style to Empire
Amsterdam coat of arms and flanked by figures
of Fame blowing trumpets, trophies and putti
sitting with palms of peace. The signature 'P.
Schenck fe : Cum : Privil :' is printed in the right-
hand corner. The other pages are slightly-
coarser copies. There is a complete copy in the
Kupfersdch Cabinet of the Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam. Guilmard also includes a complete
copy but calls the engraver Schentz 9 . He is also
aware that the prototypes of the publication are
French ('la plupart d'apres des modeles
frangais').
The text on the tide-page of the second copy
edition of Simonin's album of 1685, published
by Daniel de la Feuille of Amsterdam, is
identical with the Schenck edition except as
regards the name of the publisher. The framing
is also very similar to the French original.
There is an example of this edition in the
Bibliotheque Royale, Brussels 10 .
The Simonin album of 1685 was distributed
in Germany by Jakob von Sandrart. Its tide
(PI. 122:2) is: 'PLUSIEURS PIECES ET ORNEMENTS
Darquebuzerie, le plus nouuellement Inuentees
et Tirees des premiers Maistres de l'Europe.
Neues Biichlein Unterschidlicher Stuck und
Ciraten Biixenmacher Arbeit nach besten Meis-
tern dieser Kunst, alien dieser Profession
Zugethanen seer niitzlich. Zu Niirnberg bej I
Sandrart zufinden.' This title is surrounded by
a cartouche with an oak leaf wreath, trophies,
captives, a Goddess of Fame blowing a
trumpet, etc. The tide-page is new, the other
pages are copies though with different number-
ing from that of the original 11 . The date of the
publication of these copies must fall between
1685 and Jakob von Sandrart's death in 1708 12 ,
but probably in the 1690s, seeing that new
forms had already replaced the old ones in
France and the fashion spread rapidly.
Sandrart's copies after Simonin are the work
of a heavier hand than the original. This is still
more the case with another pirate edition from
the same original which was published by
David Funck, also of Nuremberg. The plates
in it are engraved by Heinrich Raab. A copy of
page '6' of the original serves as the tide-page.
On it a lock-plate decoration at the top has
been omitted and its place taken by a cartouche
with the inscription: 'Neues Buchsenmacher
Biichlein zufinden beij David Funck in Niirn-
berg' (Fig. 5). There is an example in the
Museum fur angewandte Kunst, Vienna 13 .
While the forms and decoration that intro-
duce the Classical epoch in French gunmaking
were developing, the second edition of Philippe
Cordier Daubigny's pattern sheets from the
1630s appeared, and in 1687, when the Classical
style was at its peak, Gerard Iollain issued a
pattern book: 'Divers Ornemens, Platines,
Chiens, Bassinets, Visses, Escroiie, Feuillages,
et festons propre pour les Armuriers, dessignes
et jnventez par Alexandre de Rochetaille
Armurier ordinaire du Roy. 1687. Se vend a
Paris Chez Gerard Iollain rue St: Iacq. a
PEnfant Iesu excum P.R.' The only copy known
to exist is in the National Museum, Stock-
holm 14 . It consists of six sheets including the
tide-page. The title does not fulfil its promises
when examined. The title-page itself proves to
be a copy of Marcou, 'Plusieurs pieces d'arque-
buzerie . . .', pages '7' and '4' according to the
Berlin copy, but reversed. The locks on four
of the other sheets are also copies from Marcou,
and in addition, de Rochetaille has made
constant use of Stephano della Bella: 'Raccolta
di varii cappricii . . .' as well as of other earlier
engravings. Daubigny also provided the
material for page '4'. The entire publication is
very inferior, technically as well as artistically.
It can only have served a purely commercial
purpose.
Louis XIV constantly met his own image in
the panelling of the palace rooms, on the
tapestries, in the groups of statuary in the parks,
etc. This did not generally apply when he
picked up one of his own guns. In one instance,
however, the famous gunsmith Piraube has
followed the maxim, pronounced by Le
Brun, that official art should be an apotheosis
of the monarch. This is on the 1682 gun in the
collection of Windsor Castle (PI. 76). Louis
XIV's profile is chiselled beneath the French
royal crown. The part of the butt-plate on top
of the butt is also decorated with the crowned
arms of France and the radiant sun, the royal
symbol to which Apollo driving his team on
the side-plate also alludes. The king's image is
149
Flintlock
^fm rujjaaijai/p.
Fig. j. Title page of the edition published by David Funk of Nuremberg copied from Simonirfs Plusieurs pieces et
ornements of i68j. Original in Oesterreichisches Museum f. angewandte Kunst, Vienna. Cf. PI. 120:1.
again encountered on the butt in an equestrian
monument, resembling his statue on horse-
back above the entrance to the Hotel des
Invalides in Paris, and on Coyzevox's relief in
the Salon de la guerre at Versailles, where he
is also surrounded by a figure of Fame and by
genii carrying palm leaves and a laurel wreath.
The gun provides a fitting proof of the
application of Le Brun's decoration. Such a
distinctive product by a master attached to the
Court also shows how strong the tradition of a
craft can be in the minute details of the inlay
work of the stock. Some of these are direct
survivals from the Thuraine and Le Hollandois'
epoch. Piraube used the same thumb-plate
and the same side-plate some fifteen years later
on a pair of magnificent pistols in the Gewehr-
galerie, Dresden (Inv. No. 739). As far as the
design of the details is concerned he no longer
achieved the same high level. This deterioration
is still more noticeable on the 171 5 pistols in
the Louvre, Paris. The Dresden pistols are, in
IJO
other respects, good examples of the later type
of silver inlay on stocks characterized above.
The fact that Erttel of Dresden took Louis
XIV's Windsor gun as the prototype of the
gun in private Swedish ownership (PL 83, 84),
now unfortunately lost, is an excellent parallel
to the role Augustus the Strong wished to play
in Saxony, also in the French manner.
Other luxurious weapons of the same period
deserve to be mentioned on account of their
ornament, such as the two guns of the 1680s by
'Gruche" a Paris' in the Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Vienna, and the Bayerisches National-
museum, Munich (PI. 77) and also the slightly
later garniture by Chasteau in the Tojhus
Museum, Copenhagen (PI. 79) and a gun by the
same master in Vienna (Waffensammlung
No. A 1579). In all their opulence they are
nevertheless merely variations on the theme
we already know. The oval, pierced plate on
the butt of the Emperor Charles VTs gun in
Vienna (PL 77:2) derives from Le Brun's
Patterns and decoration from the Classical Louis XIV style to Empire
painting Alexander's entry into Babylon now in
the Louvre 16 .
The mid 1690s witnessed a change in French
gunmaking which led to a return to mid
century form together with the adoption of
the Berain ornament. It is not known to what
extent Jean Berain drew patterns for flintlock
arms during his middle age, but in 1697 he at
any rate made drawings for a pair of pistols
which Daniel Cronstrom, Assesor and later
Minister Resident in Paris, intended to offer
Charles XII as a present 17 . This was probably
not the only occasion, and it would be but
natural if the elements in flintlock design about
the turn of the century, that revert to the
middle of the seventeenth century, could be
explained by Berain's collaboration. The earliest
known dated examples of the new style are the
Piraube pistols of 1696 in the Dresden Army
Museum (PI. 85 :i, 4, 7), the oldest among the
engraved patterns two sheets by De Lacol-
lombe dated 1702 and 1705 respectively (PI.
1 28-1), the latter with Le Languedoc's name on
a lock. The details on these sheets manifestly
belong to the 1680s and 1690s but the locks are
flat in shape (cf. Pis. 1 27 and 128:1). These sheets
belong to a series of which the remainder are
lost.
These revived forms are also represented in
the patterns by Guerard and Gillot and by
later engravings by De Lacollombe. Among
these Guerard's pattern illustrations are the
earliest.
According to Nagler there were two engrav-
ers named Nicolas Guerard, probably father
and son 18 . Thieme-Becker only knows of one,
d. 1 719, the same man, who according to
Jessen, based his art entirely on Berain 19 . This
is also the impression given by his album, the
complete tide of which, according to the
specimen in the Staatliche Kunstbibliothek,
Berlin 20 (PI. 123:1) is: 'diverses pieces d'ar-
quebuserie. Enrichies de figures et d'orne-
ments, de Damasquine et d' Argent de raport
Invented, Dessignez et gravez par Nicolas
Guerard. Sous la conduite des plus habiles
Arquebusiers de Paris. Se vendent Paris chez
ledit N. Guerard graveur rue S:t Jacques
proche S:t Yves, c.p.r.' The title on the copy
in the Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal, Paris, is
similarly worded but fills up more of the frame
and is slightly enlarged. In both instances it is
surrounded by a very ample frame with many
figures, mostly emblematic of war, but also of
the chase and target shooting. Minerva on the
one side and Diana on the other represent the
use of arms. The naturalism of the eighteenth
century is conspicuous on the title-page as well
as in the scenes from the chase which decorate
locks and mounts. Two of these hunting
scenes derive from prototypes by Jean-Baptiste
Oudry 21 .
There is no uncertainty as to the period they
represent. This is established sufficiently by
the arms dating from 1708 to the beginning of
the 1 720s discussed in chapter ten. The side-
plates with engraved hunting scenes look for-
ward, but other elements appear old fashioned,
for example the drawing for the silver inlay
round a thumb-plate on sheet '9'. On sheets '9'
and '10', the last in the series, Guerard pro-
duced patterns for very elaborate stock inlays.
They follow the late seventeenth -century
designs mentioned above, but the foliate scrolls
are more complex and the figures incorporated
in them more numerous. These figures are
intended to be executed in the form of engraved
and silver plate nailed to the stock. This is also
the case as regards three guns which are
decorated in the manner of Guerard's engrav-
ings. Two of these guns are in the Moscow
Kremlin. They are numbered 7203 and 72 17 22 .
The third is in the Tojhus Museum in Copen-
hagen (Inv. No. B 1533). The last mentioned
one belonged to the Empress Elizabeth of
Russia, is dated 1749 and was, like the others,
manufactured in Tula.
As has already been mentioned Guerard's
series contains ten sheets including the title. It
is represented in the Staatliche Kunstbiblio-
thek, Berlin (O. S. 858a), the Livrustkammare,
Stockholm, the Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal 23 ,
Musee des Arts decoratifs, Paris, and elsewhere.
It was probably, like Simonin's designs, widely
used. This is also indicated by the fact that it,
like the others, was distributed in a facsimile
edition, in this instance by Johann Christoph
Weigel, Nuremberg. As he died in 1725 this
151
Flintlock
Fig. 6. Title-page ofjohann Christoph Weigel' s edition of copies ofGuerard's Diverses Pieces d'arquebuserie.
Original in Staatliche Kunstgewerbebibliothen, Dresden.
gives us a terminus ante quern both for the
facsimile edition and for the original. This
dating tallies with what we have already
gathered from the dated arms. The title of the
Weigel edition (Fig. 6) reads : 'Unterschiedliche
Stucke vom buchsenmachen reichlich verse-
hen mit allerhand Figuren und Zierrathen, vom
Schmeltz Damascener und eingelegtem Silber-
Werck, vorgestellet unter Anleitung der ges-
chicktesten Buchsen-Schmite zu Paris. Johann
Christoph Weigel Excudit.' The border of the
title is also copied in this case. This series is rare.
Claude Gillot (i 673-1 722) is known as
Watteau's teacher, but he also deserves to be
remembered as a highly skilled draughtsman.
Gillot produced a series of designs for gun-
smiths. It contains eight sheets including the
tide. One of his original drawings is fortunately
preserved and belongs to the Musee des Arts
152
Decoratifs in Paris (PI. 126:1). It is executed in
red crayon in the lightest of hands, the sureness
of which is impressive. The composition has
been slighdy simplified in the engraving, but
there is no doubt that this drawing is the source
of one of the sheets in 'nouveaux desseins
d'arquebuserie Inventez et Gravez Par Le
S :r Gillot. Ce vend a Paris rue S :t Jacques chez
F. Chereau aux deux Pilliers d'or. In. par
Gillot Peintre. de l'Academie Royalle de
Peinture' (PI. 125:1). The work is undated.
The date of publication must however be
between 171 5, when he became 'agree', and
1722, the year of his death 24 . Gillot's patterns
for gunsmiths belong to the Regence style.
Gillot's sheets do not seem to have been
employed in the manufacture of weapons.
Some of the details nevertheless recall the group
with gilded brass furniture by masters such as
Plate 131.
France, Paris.
Mid eighteenth century,
early nineteenth century.
^^^^TxmR™
wmim
=$■
PfftPrf
1 . De Marteau, Nouveaux Ornemens U Arquebuseries . . . Paris,
undated. 1. Title page; Ex. Berlin, Staatliche Kunst-
bibliothek O.S. 863. 2. De Marteau, pattern sheet for
shaftmakers; Ex. Stockholm, Livrustkammaren. 3 and 4.
Lucas, patterns for firearms decorations; Ex. Paris, Biblio-
theque Nationale. Cabinet des estampes, Vol. Le 24.
Plate 132.
an eft ten
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France, Strasbourg.
Mid eighteenth century.
Terminology plate published by Perrier, dealer in engrav-
ings, Strasbourg. Military rifles; Ex. Berlin. Staatliche
Kunstbibliothek O.S. 862.
Plate 133.
France, Strasbourg.
Mid eighteenth century.
Terminology plate, same as on PI. 132. Sporting rifles.
Plate 134.
France.
1 600-1 8 10.
Signatures. See also Chapter Fourteen on this subject.
Patterns and decoration from the Classical Louis XIV style to Empire
Thiermay, Servais and Seller (cf. p. no and
PI. 88). It is regrettable in a way that Gillot did
not exert more influence on flindocks, as his
contribution is original in comparison with the
archaising forms of the middle of the seven-
teenth century that so long remained in use.
Closely related to the material which has
been dealt with are two sheets with the
signature 'Le Conardel A St LO' in the Staatliche
Kunstbibliothek, Berlin (O. S. 861. PL 126:2)".
This signature is reversed on parts of two lock-
plates on one of the sheets. The ornament,
technique and quality are in keeping with the
ordinary flindocks of the period and it would
not be surprising if the engraver were a gun-
smith who had engraved two copper plates
with the ornaments with which he was accus-
tomed to embellish his productions.
As has been pointed out only a part of De
Lacollombe's earlier series (Pis. 127, 128:1) is
known, but it can be concluded from the
uniform nature and numbering of the extant
sheets that one existed or was planned. The
sheets which have formed the basis of this
study and obviously also of Guilmard's notes 26 ,
are part of a volume with engraved patterns
for gunsmiths that belonged to the Foulc
Collection. They bear the numbers '9', *io',
*\i* and '13', which implies rather a large
series. What the other sheets in this series look
like, their number, tide and when the series
was published is all unknown. It is to be hoped
that research will fill this gap. Of the four sheets
now known three are wholly or pardy very
much in the spirit of the seventeenth century,
sheet '9' dated 1702, because it illustrates a
Wender construction, sheet 'io' because a
rounded steel and pan are reproduced, sheet '1 3'
(PI. 127) and, furthermore, on account of the
form of the butts and the inlaid ornament
shown. The latter is of the same kind as that in
the Simonin album of 1692 and on the gun by
Le Languedoc in Dresden (cf. PI. 81:1). We
also find Le Languedoc's name on a lock on
Le Lacollombe's sheet '10' and on sheet
'11' (PI. 128:1), which is dated 1705. The
other pattern sheets signed by De Lacollombe
were assembled by his pupil De Marteau to
formaseries (Pis. 128:2, 129, 130) with the tide:
'nouveaux desseins d'arquebvseries Dessine
&graue par De Lacollombe a Paris 1730. Se
Vend Chez De Marteav Eleve De Feu Mr De
Lacollombe.' This title-page is consequendy
dated 1730 and De Lacollombe is described as
'the late' although his name can be read on
another sheet dated 1736. Apart from details
of decoration, adapted for different parts of
weapons, a large oval cartouche is to be seen
on this latter sheet with a palatial interior in
which a distinguished gentleman seated at a
table receives a bumper 'bag' from a sportsman,
while two others with guns on their shoulders
supervise or guard at the sides. Below this oval
frame and linked with it by globes and god-
desses of Fame is another cartouche with a
deer chase in a large, open landscape with
mountains and a lake. The various elements
are more closely packed on this sheet than on
the four earlier ones. The same applies to the
five pattern sheets proper, all unnumbered,
which, as far as the nature of the ornament is
concerned, are direcdy linked with this sheet.
Le Languedoc's name has disappeared from
these and De Lacollombe's is also substituted
on the lock-plates. One (PI. 129:1) is dated
1730, and taking this with other known facts
(cf. chapter ten) we may conclude that the
series with the title, the sheet with the palace
interior and the five associated sheets represent
a style which had been employed in gunmaking
from the beginning of the century. A charac-
teristic feature is the punched ground, which
was probably intended to be gilded, and
against which the bright decoration showed
up. These engravings show the solid side-
plates which developed when the ground of
the earlier pierced ones was filled with punched
work. Another popular type follows the out-
line of the lock-plate.
De Lacollombe probably died between the
years 1737 and 1743. His name appears,
together with De Marteau's, on some of the
earlier sheets, but from 1743 De Marteau's
name is alone (PI. 130). It is true that there are
details in De Lacollombe's style on these sheets
but they have become very 'soft'. The rest of
the ornament, which is heavy and compact, is
executed in the Louis XV style. The undated
153
Flintlock
sheet has very large cartouches in each corner
with figure scenes, a cavalry fight, a monkey
dressed as a sportsman, dogs, and game, etc.,
which are not at first recognizable as decora-
tions for firearms. They rarely, if ever, occur
in French gunmaking, but there are examples
by German gunsmiths. A very beautiful gun
by J. A. Kock of Mainz, dated 1740, in the
Musee de la Porte de Hal in Brussels (Inv. No.
1484) is a good specimen. It has chiselled
cartouches and figure scenes on silver plates
which are securely nailed to the stock. They
can be regarded as a more solid version of the
figures enclosed in the inlaid scrolls. One of
the motifs in De Marteau's engravings, two boys
on a see-saw, is taken from Second livre de faille
d'espargne . . . per I, Bourguet Marchand Orfevre a
Paris iy2f. De Marteau produced on the same
sheet two decorative designs for carving gun
and pistol stocks around and behind the breech-
tang. There are similar ones on two other
sheets. They are composed of rococo scrolls
terminating in sprays of leaves or flowers, or
entire sprays, catkins and rocailles. De Marteau
produced variations on this theme in the series
'Nouveaux Ornemens D'Arquebuzeries Des-
sine et Graue Par De Marteau Laine. Se Vend
Chez Lauteur AParis. Prix 3"' (PL 131:1). The
title is enclosed in a cartouche of the same type.
The album contains twenty-three sheets, the
tide-page included. There is a copy with this
title in the Staatliche Kunstbibliothek, Berlin
(O. S. 863) 28 . Three of the sheets are reproduced
in Hirth's ¥ormenschat\ vol. 21 (1897) on PI. 13
and are ascribed to Jean-Louis Durant (known
1670-78). This, on account of the style alone,
should have aroused suspicion. Another series
entitled 'de marteau Le Ieune Graveur sur
tour Metaux, Demeure au coin du Quay
Pelletier du cote de la Greve aparis' is in the
Livrustkammare and contains the same kind of
ornament for carving on gunstocks. A sheet is
reproduced on PL 131:2.
A chart of terminology published by Perrier,
a dealer in engravings of Strasbourg (PL
132, 133) also dates from the mid eighteenth
century. The left side shows the infantry rifle,
the right the superior shotgun. There is a copy
in the Staatliche Kunstbibliothek, Berlin (O. S.
154
862)' », another in the National Museum,
Stockholm.
The ornament on the surviving firearms has
been described in chapter ten. It follows the
usual trend from the Baroque of Louis XIV
via the Regence, which had definite influence
on the craft of the gunmakerj to the Louis XV
style. This appears surprisingly late, not until
the 1740s, and persists so long that the Louis
XVI style gets very little chance of making
itself felt until the stock of ornament of I'ancien
regime has to give way to the Empire style. The
gun signed by Le Page in the Historisches
Museum, Dresden (Inv. No. Z.K. 664. PL
99:3-5) may be regarded as a continuation of
the Louis XVI style. In the Wender gun of not
later than 1808 in the same museum (Gewehr-
galerie 1891. PL 99:2) both form and decora-
tion are more characteristic of the Empire style.
For this later trend we have the most typical
examples in Boutet's production PL 100).
During the subsequent Restauration period the
ornament became lighter and more delicate but
as late as 1829 Napoleonic eagles decorate the
barrels of the engravings for gun ornament.
Some of these were signed 'Lucas' and thirteen
are preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale,
Paris (Cabinet des Estampes, Le 25. PL
131:3, 4) 30 . The style is Empire. No lock is
shown on these engravings, but it is just as
probable that the drawings were originally
made for the flintlock arms as for the percus-
sion-lock guns which were being manufactured
on an ever increasing scale. Lucas's sheets are
therefore well suited to conclude this brief
survey of the decoration of the French flintlock
arms and the patterns which are associated
with them.
Notes to Chapter Thirteen
1. Boeheim, Meister der Waffenschmiedekunst.
P. in.
2. This latter statement is probably taken
from Guilmard, Les maitres ornemanistes.
P. 109. No. 61.
3. Guilmard, Les maitres ornemanistes. P. 109.
No. 61. G. gives the number of sheets as
twelve.
Patterns and decoration from the Classical Louis XIV style to Empire
8
10
ii.
12.
M
14
4. [Lotz], Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung
der Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek, Berlin. P. 123.
5. Boeheim, Meister der Waffenschmiedekunst.
P. in.
6. [Lotz], Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung
der Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek, Berlin. P. 123.
7. Guilmard, Les maitres ornemanistes. P. 109.
No. 61. Guilmard considers both the
editions to be identical though with
different titles.
The Livrustkammare possesses a copy of
the 1705 edition.
Guilmard, Les maitres ornemanistes. P. 511.
No. 42.
Hymans, Catalogue des estampes d'Ornement
. . . de la Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique.
P. 260.
These observations have been made on the
copy in the Staatliche Kupferstichkabinett,
Dresden. B 115 8.
Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der
bildenden Kunstler, Vol. XXIX (published
by Hans Vollmer). 397.
Ritter, Illustrierter Allgemeines Katalog der
Ornamentstichsammlung des K. K. Osterreich.
Museums fur Kunst und Industrie. Erwer-
bungen seit dem Jahre 1871. P. 161, note.
Photographs of this series contributed by
Dr Bruno Thomas, Vienna.
Engraving and pencil drawings Section.
Receuil d'ornemens et d 'architecture. P. 192.
16
15. Title-page of the edition published by
David Funck of Nuremberg — copies of
Simonin's 'Plusieurs pieces et ornements'
of 1685. Original in the Staatliches Kunst-
gewerbmuseum in Vienna. Cf. PI. 120:1.
Le Muse'e National du Louvre. P. 80. No. 513.
Michel, Histoire de I' art. T. VI: 2. PI. VIII.
17. Weigert, Jean I Berain. T. I. P. 113, not. 5.
18. Nagler, Neues allgemeines Kiinstler-Lexikon.
Vol. V. Pp. 427, 428.
19. Jessen, Der Ornamentstich. Pp. 219, 221.
20. [Lotz], Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung der
Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek, Berlin. P. 125.
No. 858 a.
21. L 'art pour tous. Troisieme annee. P. 349.
22. Opts moskovskoj oru^ejnej palati. Vol. III.
Pp. 210, 212. Pict. 394.
23. Guilmard, Les maitres ornemanistes. P. 108.
No. 58.
24. Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der
bildenden Kunstler. Vol. XIV. P. 44.
25. [Lotz], Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung
der Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek, Berlin. P. 125.
26. Guilmard, Les maitres ornemanistes. Pp. 1 5 8,
159. No. 20.
27. [Lotz], Katalog der Ornementstichsammlung
der Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek, Berlin. P. 124.
No. 849:3.
28. Ibid. P. 125.
29. Ibid. P. 125.
30. Bouchot, Le Cabinet des estampes de la
Bibliotheque Nationale. P. 202.
155
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Signatures
Flintlock weapons have in general been
signed since the middle of the seventeenth
century. The signature is most often on
the lock at this period but sometimes on both
barrel and lock. Previously there was no hard
and fast rule. French sixteenth century firearms
are only signed with stamps, which have not
yet been interpreted. This also applies to a con-
siderable number of seventeenth century flint-
lock arms. The stamps have mostly been re-
corded but little work has been done on them
otherwise, 'm. lebovrgeoys a lisievl' engraved
his name at the beginning of the seventeenth
century on the earliest known flintlock gun
(PL 8) behind the trigger-guard (PI. 134:1).
The other signed by him (PI. 11:3) bears the
inscription 'M le bourgeoys' also engraved or
rather incised at the foot of the butt-plate
(PI. 134:2). This form with the name only is
used by 'La svze' on the wheel-lock gun, Inv.
No. 94D in the Musee de la Porte de Hal,
Brussels (French Royal Armoury Inv. No. 64)
and by 'd. ivmeav' on a wheel-lock gun of
1 61 6, No. M 102 in the Mus^e de PArmee,
Paris (French Royal Armoury Inv. No. 357),
in both cases engraved on the barrel in front
of the back-sight. '161 3 avom fait tel' can be
read on the barrel of the wheel-lock gun No. 40
in the French Royal Armoury (Musee de
156
PArmee, Paris, No. M 95) and the initials
'f p' on the lock-plate between the wheel and
the cock 1 . The following inscription is inlaid in
gold on a pistol barrel: 'a Vitre par marin
mazue 1 61 2' (The Tower of London Inv.
No. XII 11075). This type of signature recurs
in 'Faict A Turene m.d.' in the early flintlock
gun in the collection of arms in Windsor
Castle (PI. 14:2 and PI. 134:3), in 'a Vitre par
Me Jacques de Goulet' (Pistols, French Cabinet
d'Armes No. 207: the inscription is obliter-
ated), and in 'Faict A Vitre Par Paul Paindeble',
on a pistol in the Livrustkammare (Inv.
No. 4784) inlaid in gold on the barrel (PI.
i34:4)-
In the 1 620s the formula with the name and
place in this order and with or without the date
was established. Examples are 'Jean Henequy
a Metz 1 621' in the gold inlay on the barrel of
the wheel-lock gun Inv. No. 1733 in the
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, and
'Jean Henequy a Metz', engraved on the upper
edge of the lock-plate, on the same gun
(PI. 104:5). Another example is: 'J. Habert a
Nancy', engraved on the left side of the
chamber of the wheel-lock gun No. 43 in the
French Royal Armoury (Collection Pauilhac,
Paris. PI. 134:5) and 'Jean Simonin a Luneville
1627' inlaid in silver on the comb of the
butt (Musee de l'Armee, Paris No. M 131) 2 .
In the 1 630s we find the signature 'E2echias
Colas a Sedan' engraved as part of the decora-
tion on pistol barrels (PL 134:6) and likewise
'Isaac Cordier' (wheel-lock pistols in the Berlin
Museum fur deutsche Geschichte, Inv. No.
W 1 145 a,b, cf. p. 1 26), in the former case along
the barrel, in the latter straight across, a
system which recurs twenty years later on the
pistols by 'Monlong a Anger' in the armoury
of Schwarzburg (PL 61 :i). 'Philippe Cordier'
signs on the rear part of the lock-plate (PL
14:4). The elaborate decoration of the lock-
plates necessitated the placing of the signature
on the 'interrupted' edge of the lock-plate,
especially when it might interfere with the
decoration. This practice was followed in the
case of the unknown 'a bergerac' (rubbings
in the Staatliche Kunstbibliothek, Berlin. O.S.
825. Unfortunately the gunsmith's name is
obliterated) and also 'P. Thomas a Paris' on the
gun in the Livrustkammaren garniture of the
1 640s. On the pistols of the garniture the
signature has moved to the plate (PL 134:7,8).
During the 1640s in the case of lock-plates
embellished with numerous figures the signa-
ture is placed wherever there is an empty space.
In the mid seventeenth century another type
of signature appears, first on the Wenders,
recalling the manner of the Netherlandish
calligraphists. Marcou employs it in his pattern
book (PL 134:9) and Choderlot's signature is
engraved in this style on the pistols in the
Tojhus Museum, Copenhagen (PL 134:10). At
the same time gunsmiths began to engrave
their own name and that of the town in a shield
or cartouche placed between the cock and the
pan or on the lock-plate behind the cock. This
type of signature is frequently found in the
Thuraine and Le Hollandois group (PL
134:12,14,15). The numerous signatures on the
first three sheets in the Thuraine and Le
Hollandois book show the use of italic charac-
ters with large and small letters in calligraphic
style. Roman letters also appear and these
finally oust the others as a result of ever
increasing Classical influence. Berain usually
employs signatures with capital letters in a
cartouche. The type with luxuriant flourishes
Signatures
is associated with a species of barrel signa-
tures, all dating from about 1670 or a little
earlier. They are represented in the Tojhus
Museum, Copenhagen, on arms by Thuraine
or Les Thuraines (PL 134:13).
The signature 'F de clos' is inlaid in gold
on the chambers of both the wheel-lock pistols
in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (PL
134:17). Devies's signature on the pistols in
Dresden of the 1640s (PL 134:18) and Casin's
on August the Strong's pistols of the 1650s in
the same museum (PL 55:3) are inscribed on
the tang of the barrel, in the latter case engraved
in a cartouche on the locks as well. The style is
in every case italic with capital initial letters.
The signature on the barrel tang still occurs in
exceptional cases during the 1670s (PL 74:1).
It sometimes moves up the barrel (gun by
Thuraine in the Tojhus Museum, Copenhagen,
Inv. No. B 948)*. Cf. also PL 67:3.
From the close of the 1660s onwards
signatures on the locks are consistently designed
with Roman capitals. A single row at the
bottom of the lock-plate is the rule, as used by
Piraube on the gun No. 1337 in the Livrust-
kammare (PL 134:16). Variations are met with,
of course, depending on tradition and on the
difficulty in placing the signature on richly
decorated locks, especially if 'aux galleries' or
'aux galleries du Louvre' had to be added
between the name and 'a Paris'. The course
Piraube then adopted was to engrave the
signature in several lines round the pan or, in
several examples, on the front edge of the lock-
plate along the steel-spring.
When the flat raised sighting rib was intro-
duced on the barrels about 1680 it was tempting
to repeat the signature there (pistols at Skok-
loster, Brahe-Bielke Armoury. PL 134:19).
Le Languedoc's name appears in this position
in Simonin's album of 1685 in the same simple
Roman capitals which we recognize from the
locks. But Chasteau in Paris has combined
these engraved capitals on the Tojhus Museum
gun No. B 960 with inlaid gold ornament in
low relief (PL 134:20). In the 1720s the entire
barrel signature might be inlaid with gold and
the decoration merged into the initial and the
final letters. The type still persists into the
157
Flintlock
mid 1 8th century (gun: The Hallwyl Museum
Inv. No. A 31. PI. 134:21).
With the transition to the Berain style at the
end of the seventeenth century lock signatures
enclosed in a cartouche were reintroduced.
The use of these is not consistent but frequent.
The practice of signing on a ribbon or scroll
soon followed. The type is illustrated in De
Lacollombe's pattern sheets dated 1730 (PL
129:1) and by the signature on the gun by 'St
Germain a Paris 1721' (PL 91:4). The type of
signature in which the initial letters develop
into ornamental features is also found on mid
eighteenth century locks.
With the neo-Classical style the capitals return
and finally capitals alone are used. The Empire
style uses both capital and italic letters, some-
times in the same signature (PL 134:22), and
the late Boutet gun in Brussels (PL 100:5) is
signed in neo-Gothic letters.
Notes to Chapter Fourteen
Le Musee de l'Armee. Armes et armures
anciennes. T. II. P. 123. PL XL bis.
Ibid. P. 130.
Smith, Det kongelige partikulaere Rustkam-
mer. Pp. 38, 40, 41.
Ibid. PL 32.
158
Sources and Bibliography
UNPUBLISHED DOCUMENTS
The Swedish Public Record Office (Riksar-
kivet), Principal Section, Stockholm; Cor-
respondence between Erik Dahlberg and
Svante Baner. Dahlberg Collection. Vol. 18;
The Swedish Public Record Office, Stockholm
(Kammararkiv — Exchequer Rolls Records);
Miscellaneous administrative documents . . .
9. Inventory of the small archives ...1557.
The War Archives, Stockholm (Krigsarkivet) ;
Norr hoping Factory Accounts 1688.
The Palace Archives, Stockholm. (Slottsar-
kivet); Wardrobe Accounts 1614. Livrustkam-
mare Inventories 168). L.ivrustkammare Inven-
tories 1696.
The Livrustkammare, Stockholm (The Royal
Armoury); Livrustkammare Inventory 18 21.
The Royal Library, Stockholm (Kungliga
biblioteket) Manuscript Section; Dahlberg
Collection. M. n.
The University Library, Uppsala (Univer-
sitetsbiblioteket) ; Correspondence between
Erik Dahlberg and Samuel Minsson Agri-
conius (Akerhielm). U. 147.
The University Library, Lund (Universitets-
biblioteket); De la Gardie Library. De la
Gardie No. 9 d. Inventory in Hans G: N:
de the General's Armoury, Anno 1628
the 30 May.
The Sturefors Archives. Sturefors Archives.
List of the Gun Collection at Sturefors drawn
up 1846 (by Count Axel Bielke). Extract
from the inventory at Sturefors (1758).
The Tower, London; Petrini, Antonio; De
Arte fabrile.
Archives Nationales, Paris ; Inventaire du mobilier
de la couronne (1729). T. IV. O 1 3334.
Archives du Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres,
Paris; Suede 1672-1688. Histoire des negofia-
tions. Feuquieres's correspondence. Reports
to Louis XIV.
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I. GENERAL
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Thieme, F. Becker & H. Vollmer. Bd I-
XXXII. Lpz. 1907-38. (Cit. Thieme-Becker.)
Aim, J.; Eldhandvapen. I. Fran deras tidigaste
forekomst till slaglasets allmanna inforande.
Sthlm 1933. (Militarlitteraturforeningens for-
lag. 166.)
— Svenska muskotsnapplas pa Carl XI :s tid.
(Svenska vapenhistoriska sallskapets arssk-
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Barbet de Jouy, H. ; Notices des antiquites . . .
composant le Musee des souverains, 2me ed. Paris
1868.
Cosson, [C. A.] de; Le cabinet d'armes de Maurice
de Talleyrand-Perigord, due de Dino. Etude des-
criptive . . . Paris 1 90 1.
SCHWARZBURG.
Ossbahr, C. A.; Das ftirstliche Zeughaus in
Schwar^burg. Rudolstadt 1895.
ST. PETERSBURG, See: LENINGRAD.
MOSCOW.
Opis moskovskoj oru^ejnej palati. Moscow 1884-
86.
NEW YORK.
Dean, B.; Handbook of arms and armor, Euro-
pean and Oriental including the William H.
Kiggs collection. The Metropolitan Museum of
Art. New York 1921.
[Grancsay, S. V.]; The Metropolitan Museum of
Art. Loan exhibition of European arms and
armor. New York 193 1.
OSLO.
Katalog over Artilleri-Museet paa Akershus.
Christiania 1904.
OXFORD.
ffoulkes, C; European arms and armor in the
University of Oxford. {Principally in the As/j-
molean and Pitt-Rivers museums.) Oxf. 191 2.
PARIS.
Bouchot, H. ; Le Cabinet des estampes de la
Bibliotheque Nationale. Guide du lecteur et du
visiteur. Catalogue general et raisonne des collec-
tions qui y sont conservees. Paris.
Le Musee National du Louvre, [Catalogue].
Le Musee de I'Armee. Armes et armures anciennes et
souvenirs historiques les plus precieux. Publ. sous
la dir. du General [A.] Mariaux. T. II. Paris
1927.
Robert, L. ; Catalogue des collections composant le
Musee d'Artillerie en 1889. T. IV. Paris 1893.
STOCKHOLM.
[Claudelin, B.]; Hallwylska samlingen, Beskri-
vande forteckning. Grupperna XXXIV och
XXXV. Sthlm 1926.
— Planscher. Sthlm 1926.
— Katalog over vapensamlingen i Hallwylska huset
i Stockholm. Sthlm 1927.
Kungl. Livrustkammaren. Bilder av markligare
foremal. Sthlm 1927.
Vdgledning for besokande i Lifrustkammaren och
ddrmed forenade samlingar. j:e uppl. Sthlm
1915.
Vdgledning for besokande i Livrustkammaren och
ddrmed forenade samlingar. 7 uppl. Upps. 1921.
Cederstrom, R., & Malmborg, G.; Den dldre
Livrustkammaren 1614. Sthlm 1930. (Kungl.
Livrustkammaren. Inventariepublikationer.)
Lenk, T.; Kort sammanfattad vdgledning for
besokande i Livrustkammaren och ddrmed forenade
samlingar. Sthlm 1929.
Ossbahr, C. A.; Vdgledning for besokande i
Lifrustkammaren och ddrmed forenade samlingar.
} uppl., omarb. . . . Sthlm 1 894.
TURIN.
Armeria antica e modema di S. M. il Re d' Italia in
Torino. Ser. 3. [Torino 1898.]
Angelucci, A.; Catalogo della Armeria Reale,
illustrato con incisioni in legno . . . Torino 1890.
VALETTA.
Laking, G. F. ; A catalogue of the armour and arms
in the armoury of the Knights of St. John of
Jerusalem, now in the palace, Valetta, Malta.
Lond.
165
Flintlock
VENICE.
Lucia, G. de; Ea Sala d'armi. Rome 1908.
ZURICH.
Gessler, E. A.; Schwei^erisches Eandesmuseum.
Fiihrer durch die Waffensammlung. Aarau 1928.
VIENNA.
Boeheim, W. ; Album hervorragender Gegenstdnde
aus der Waffensammlung des Allerhochsten Kaiser-
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Grosz, A., & Thomas, B. ; Katalog der Waffen-
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Vienna 1936. (Fiihrer durch die kunsthistorischen
Sammlungen in Wien ... H. 28.)
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WINDSOR.
Laking, G. F.; The armoury of Windsor Castle.
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WOOLWICH.
Official catalogue of the Museum of Artillery in\the
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Catalogue of valuable armour and weapons . . . which
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2nd of July, 19 }6 . . . Lond. 1936.
Catalogue of a valuable collection of armour and
weapons . . . which will be sold by auction by
Messrs. Sotheby <& Co ... on Tuesday, July 29th,
1930 . . . Lond. 1930.
[Cederstrom, R.]; Forteckning over greve Kellers
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Fischer, Eu^erri) und Kunstsalon Dr Pfisterer . . .
Zurich. Zurich 1937.
166
Appendices
APPENDIX I.
Arms from the 1729 inventory of the French
Royal Cabinet d'Armes of known location.
Inv. No.
3. Trente quatre arquebuses touttes simples,
de 6 pieds de long ou environ.
4. Quarante neuf arquebuses touttes simples,
de 4 pieds de long ou environ.
5 . Quarante trois arquebuses touttes simples,
de 3 pieds ou environ.
6. Une carabine, de 2 pieds 8 pouces; le
canon raye, a fleurs de lis damasquine,
les armes de France et de Navarre sur la
culasse du bois.
Present location
London. Victoria and Albert Museum, M 12-
1949.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 99, M 165.
Warsaw. Army Museum, 50448.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 104, M 132, one
unnumbered, another from Ruffin Collection.
Pauilhac Collection, three.
London. Wallace Collection V: 11 29.
Rome. Odescalchi Collection 1523.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 101, M 103.
Pauilhac Collection, one.
London. Victoria & Albert Museum 603-1864.
Warsaw. Army Museum, 477 MWR.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 96.
8. Une carabine pour porter au coste, avec
son attache, toutte unie, longue de 3
pieds; a six pams, servant a mousquet et
a rouet.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 230.
9. Une carabine de 4 pieds, gravee de ronds
sur la culasse et un peu sur le bout, le bois
tout uny, longue de 3 pieds 10 pouces.
Paris. Musee de 1' Armee, M 143.
167
Flintlock
Inv. No.
22. Une grande arquebuse de 3 pieds 4pouces,
le canon tout cisele d'or moulu, termine
en chapiteau carre, grave sur la visiere
de Pan 1573, la platine et le chien aussy
gravez d'or moulu, sur un bois noircy
tout uny.
30. Une arquebuse de 4 pieds 1/2, le canon
raye par dehors de plusieurs fillets, montee
sur un bois ou il y a quelque peu d'orne-
mens de fer.
31. Une arquebuse de 4 pieds, le canon a six
pams, tout uny, de Colombo, le rouet a
deux chiens avec plusieurs ornemens de
relief de fer poly, montee sur un bois
rouge enrichy de pareils ornemens de
relief de fer poly et de huit fueiiilles sur
la crosse, avec sa clef de mesme.
32. Une arquebuse pareille a peu pres a celle
cy-dessus, de Lazari Cominaz, sans clef.
40. Une carabine de 4 pieds, le canon rond,
couleur d'eau avec un fillet enrichy de
petits ornemens d'or et de rapport sur
les deux bouts ; la visiere, la culasse et les
petits ornemens de la platine dorez; le
bois enrichy de petits ornemens d'argent
et des armes de France et de Navarre sur
la plaque de la crosse.
43. Une carabine de 3 pieds 9 pouces, le canon
couleur d'eau, enrichy d'or et d'argent,
ou sont deux aigles dans le milieu, le
rouet uny sur un bois de poirier garny de
petits ornemens d'argent, fake par Haber,
a Nancy.
48. Une arquebuse de 4 pieds 8 pouces de
long, couleur d'eau, toutte unie, avec un
rouet d'une maniere extraordinaire, mon-
tee sur un bois peint de fleurs de lis et
d'une L couronnee, et sur la crosse les
armes de France portees sur un croissant.
50. Une carabine a porter au coste, de 3 pieds
2 pouces de long, le canon a huit pams,
168
Present Location
Berlin. Zeughaus, A D 9050.
( ?) Paris. Musee de Cluny, 5 5 64.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 383.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 385.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 95.
Pauilhac Collection , Paris.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, without number.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 144.
Inv. No.
damasquine sur les deux bouts en couleur
d'eau et ornemens de cuivre dore, la
visiere doree, le roiiet blanc, avec quel-
ques ornemens aussy dorez; montee sur
un bois de poirier tout uny.
61. Une arquebuse de 3 pieds 4 pouces, le
canon rond, un petit pam tout au long
dore en couleur d'eau, le roiiet tout uny,
montee sur un bois rouge orne de quel-
ques neurons d'argent, de cuivre et de
nacre de perle; il y a aux deux costez de
la crosse deux L couronnees.
Appendices
Present location
London. Wallace Collection V:ii33.
62. Une carabine de coste, de 2 pieds 1/2 de
long, le canon a huit pams, blanc, tout
uny, servant a roiiet et a serpentin,
montee sur un bois de poirier orne de
quelques petits neurons de cuivre, dont
la crosse s'allonge avec un ressort.
64. Une carabine de coste, de 3 pieds 1/2 de
long, le canon a huit pams, tout uny, sur
le milieu duquel il y a un cercle cisele en
maniere de baston rompu, le roiiet tout
uny, montee sur un bois de cormier orne
de plusieurs animaux et d'un Dauphin
couronne, le tout d'acier poly; ladite
carabine faite par La Suze.
65. Une carabine de coste, de 3 pieds 2
pouces, le canon a huit pams, orne par
le bout et par la culasse de fleurons et
petittes figures d'argent de rapport, le
fonds couleur d'eau; sur la platine il y a
deux roiiets servants a tirer deux coups,
entourez de fleurons d'argent de rapport;
montee sur un bois de cormier tout uny.
76. Une arquebuse de 3 pieds 10 pouces, le
canon a huit pams, grave en trois endroits
et cisele sur la culasse des figures de
Pallas, Mars et Mercure de relief, ayant
un lion pour visiere, le roiiet tres beau,
sur un bois de poirier sculpe des armes
de France et de Navarre sur la crosse, oil
il y a eu autresfois un medaillon, est
escrit autour proche le roiiet : Vive le Roy.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 386.
Bruxelles. Musee de la Porte de Hal, 94 D.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 399.
Collection Sommeson, Paris 24.1. 1848, lot 206.
169
Flintlock
Inv. No.
81. Trois gros mousquetons communs a
roiiet, de 2 pieds 1/2 ou environ, avec leurs
attaches pour le coste, le canon a huit
pams.
86. Une arquebuse de 4 pieds 5 pouces, le
canon couleur d'eau a quatre moulures
en cercle aux fillets, cisele de 2 mascarons
sur le bout et sur la culasse, le roiiet uny
sur un bois rouge.
91. Une pareille ay ant deux dauphins sur la
crosse.
93. Une arquebuse d'un pied 10 pouces, le
canon a huit pams, couleur d'eau dore
sur la culasse, avec son roiiet tout uny,
ayant un dragon dore sur la roue, montee
sur un bois de cormier orne de fleurs de
cuivre, d'argent et de nacre de perle;
ladite arquebuse, longue, avec son allonge
de canon, de 3 pieds 8 pouces.
103. Une autre arquebuse, aussy pour tirer
dedans l'eau, de 5 pieds, le canon couleur
d'eau, rond sur le devant, a huit pams
sur la culasse; la platine unie, gravee
d'un trophee d'armes; la roue enfermee
dedans sur un bois noircy, ornd de fillets
de cuivre et de quelques compartimens
d'estain.
106. Une grosse carabine de coste, ancienne,
avec son attache, le canon raye par
dedans a huit pams, tout uny comme le
roiiet, sur un bois rouge, la crosse a
l'allemande, dans laquelle est enferme
une lame de poignard arreste, couverte
d'une plaque d'yvoire, longue de 4 pieds
1 pouce.
122. Un fusil de tres gros calibre, de 4 pieds
4 pouces, le canon couleur d'eau, dore"
de rinceaux sur le bout et sur la culasse;
la platine gravee en taille d'espargne sur
un bois de poirier, dont la crosse est
vuidee en consolle, peinte de rinceaux
d'or sur un fond rouge des deux costez,
dans laquelle il y a un crapau de plomb.
Present location
London. Tower, XII '.1087.
Collection Andre, Paris.
Pauilhac Collection, Paris.
Sothebys 30.XI.1962, lot 201
(Formerly the property of the Howard Vyse
family)
Paris. Mus6e de l'Armee, M 405.
Paris. Musde de l'Armee, M 175.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 435.
170
Inv. No.
129. Un petit fusil irlandois de 4 pieds, le
canon couleur d'eau, dore en trois en-
droits sur le bout, le milieu et la culasse,
sur laquelle est grave 1614; la platine de
cuivre dore gravee en taille d'espargne,
le chien et la batterie gravez sur un bois
rouge enrichy de quelques ornemens de
pointes d'argent et d'une rose, et un
chardon sur la crosse.
Appendices
Present location
London. Tower, XII 163 .
130. Un fuzil a l'angloise, de 3 pieds 10 pouces,
le canon rond dont le bois est hache,
enrichy de six moulures d'argent de
rapport, cizele de quatre serpens et d'un
petit Satir de relief; la platine unie sur
un bois noircy enrichy de fillets de
cuivre et d'argent et pointes de cuivre
et de trophees, bestions et oyseaux de
nacre de perle de rapport, et deux pots
a fleurs aussy de nacre de perle sur la
crosse, et grave sur la couverture du
bassinet 1622.
Collection Renwick, Arizona, USA
134. Un beau fusil de 4 pieds 4 pouces, fait a
Lizieux, le canon rond, couleau d'eau,
ayant une arreste sur le devant et a pams
sur le derriere, dore de rinceaux en trois
endroits, la platine unie ornee de quelques
petittes dorees sur un beau bois de
poirier noircy, enrichy de plusiers petits
ornemens d'argent et de nacre de perle,
la crosse terminee en consolle par le
dessous, sur laquelle il y a une longue
fueuille de cuivre dore de rapport, et sur
le poulcier un mascaron d'argent et une
L couronee vis a vis la lumiere.
138. Dix huit fuzils francois, tout simples et
communs, despuis 5 jusqu'a 6 pieds de
long ou environ.
139. Six gros mousquetons a gros calibres,
tous simples et communs a fuzils, longs
de 4 pieds ou environ.
I j 1. Un tres beau fuzil, de 4 pieds 7 pouces,
pour servir a mesche et a fusil, le canon
dore en couleur d'eau sur le bout et sur
Collection Renwick, Arizona, USA.
London. Tower, XII: 1131.
Victoria and Albert Museum, M4-1949, M5-
1949.
Paris, Musee de l'Armee, without number.
Tower, XII: 1441.
Victoria and Albert Museum, M6-1949.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 410.
171
Flintlock
Irtv. No.
la culasse oil sont les armes de France;
la platine gravee en taille douce et taille
d'espargne, ayant un mascaron dore et
applique sur le milieu sur un bois noir,
dont la crosse est gravee d'une piece de
rapport de cuivre dore, representant la
Justice, au bas de laquelle est escrit haec
Lodoice oculos tibi caeca reliquit, fait
par Duclos.
152. Un beau fuzil, de 4 pieds 3 pouces, le
canon rond avec un petit pan dore en
couleur d'eau sur le bout, et sur la culasse
de rinceaux; la platine couleur d'eau,
gravee en blanc, ayant un rond dore uny
sur le milieu, sur un bois de poirier qui
forme un pied de biche dans la crosse,
fait par Bourgeois a Lizieux.
157. Un gros fuzil de 3 pieds 7 pouces, le
canon tout rond, avec une arreste dessus
en couleur d'eau, dore de rinceaux sur
la culasse et au bout d'un petit cercle
tout uny; la platine gravee en taille
d'espargne, enrichie d'une medaille de
Louis XIII de cuivre dore, montee sur
un bois iaune.
Present location
Leningrad. Hermitage Museum, F 281.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 529.
163. Un grand fuzil tres riche, de 5 pieds 1/2,
le canon couleur d'eau, rond par devant
et a pams sur la culasse enrichie de fleurs
de lis, dauphins et d'L couronnees, ayant
un dragon de cuivre dore de relief qui
sert de visiere; la platine gravee d'une
chasse de cerf en taille douce sur un bois
d'ebeine; la crosse persee dans laquelle
est enchasse un dauphin de cuivre dore;
sur la queue de la culasse est escrit:
Desrogez m'a donne au Roy.
164. Un grand et gros fuzil turc, de 5 pieds
5 pouces, le canon rond termine en trom-
pette en arondissant, orne de fleurons
d'or de rapport par le milieu et sur les
deux bouts tout a plein, enrichy de quatre
cercles de chattons de turquoises, la
visiere qui est sur l'extremite de la culasse
aussy enrichie de cinq turquoises et de
Berlin. Zeughaus, A D 9404.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 2199.
172
bir. Xo.
quatre amatistes; la platine a l'espagnole
sur un bois de cormier'sculpe de mas-
carons et testes de lion, oh. il y a dans les
yeux des grenats et autres pierres en-
chassees.
Appendices
Present Location
169. Un beau mousquet maniere de Turquie,
de 5 pieds, le canon fonds couleur d'eau
carre sur la culasse ou sont gravees trois
figures de heraults dans trois medailles
dorees ovalles, le reste du canon rond a
trois, cannelures, dont le fonds est dore;
le bout en chapiteau de colonne a jour
supporte par quatre petits Termes; la
visiere de deux testes de beliers, la
platine fonds dore, ciselee de deux fes-
seaux dedans et un mascaron au milieu,
le petit serpentin d'une teste de dragon,
sur un bois de cormier soustenu d'um
dauphin en bosse; et a la crosse il y a une
plaque ou sont ciselees les armes du
cardinal de Richelieu.
171. Cinq autres mousquets turcs communs,
de 4 a 5 pieds, montez sur leurs bois.
176. Un mousquet de 4 pieds 2 pouces, a deux
canons separez par leurs deux baguettes
qui se tournent sur la culasse, liees d'un
cercle et d'une grande plaque sous le
canon, gravez en taille d'espargne, un
seul chien pour tous les deux coups, sur
un bois rouge, dont la crosse se termine
en consolle ouverte par le dessus et
peinte sur le dessus d'ornemens couleur
d'or sur un fonds noir, la plaque de ladite
crosse gravee.
177. Un mousquet de 4 pieds, d'un seul
canon, a huit pams, qui tire cinq coups
par un tambour qui se vire, ou il y a cinq
bassinets et un seul serpentin sur un bois
simple, ayant quatre bandes de fer sur la
crosse et une plaque toutte unie.
178. Un autre mousquet de 4 pieds 1/2, d'un
seul canon a huit pams, qui tire cinq
coups aussy par un tambour tout uny,
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 37.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 2173.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee. M 369.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 1067.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 105.
J 73
Flintlock
Jnv. No.
avec un seul bassinet et serpentin, sur
un bois commun, dont la crosse est garnie
de quatre bandes de fer et la plaque toutte
unie.
Present location
179. Un mousquet de 4 pieds 3 pouces, qui
tire deux coups par un seul canon, a pams
sur la culasse et rond sur le devant; la
platine ouverte sur le milieu ou se con-
duit le serpentin a deux bassinets, sur un
bois de poirier tourne en consolle sur la
crosse.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 401.
182. Trois autres mousquets communs, de 5
pieds.
193. Un pistolet de 15 pouces, le canon de
cuivre jaune, grave en taille d'espargne
de grandes roses et fruits dans des com-
partimens, avec son crochet a porter au
coste, la platine de cuivre aussy gravee en
taille d'espargne; le chien et la batterie de
fer gravez de mesme; monte sur un fust
de cuivre; fait en 1620.
Berlin. Zeughaus, A D 9208.
Collection Pauilhac, Paris.
203. Une pake de pistolets a roiiet, de 20
pouces, le canon blanc tout uny a huit
pams; la platine de cuivre dore gravee
d'un ornement de fueiiilles, fleurs et fruits,
au milieu duquel est escrit: A Grenoble,
par Pierre Bergier horloger etc., fait pour
tirer deux coups.
204. Une autre paire de pistolets, de 19 pouces,
le canon de cuivre dore tout uny, a huit
pams, la platine de mesme; la roue et le
chien de fer tout unis, montez sur de
Pebeine cannelee, et la calotte couverte
d'un gros masque de cuivre dore.
207. Une paire de pistolets a roiiet, de 24
pouces, le canon rond sur le devant, a
huit pams sur le derriere, sur lequel est
escrit: a Vitre par Me Jacques de Goulet,
damasquine d'or et d'argent en trois
endroits, sur un bois noircy orne de
marqueterie d'argent.
174
Collection Renwick, Arizona, USA.
Collection W. K. Neal, Warminster.
London. Tower, XII: 1072 (one of the pair).
The other in the W. K. Neal Collection.
Appendices
Inv. No.
208. Une paire de pistolets a roiiet, de 27
pouces, le canon a seize pams sur le
devant et a huit sur le derriere, grave
d'une rose et de quelques fueuilles, le
roiiet tout uny, montee sur un bois de
poirier cannele, enrichy de quelques fillets
de cuivre et autres ornemens d'estain et
d'ebeine.
Present location
Collection W. K. Neal, Warminster.
Walter's Art Gallery, Baltimore, USA.
211. Une paire de pistolets a roiiet, de 26
pouces, le canon de fort petit calibre
couleur d'eau, rond sur devant, a huit
pams sur le derriere, dore aux deux bouts ;
viv a visla lumiere il y a une petitte
arbaleste estempee entre un J et un B; le
roiiet tout uny sur un bois rouge enrichy
de petits ornemens de marqueterie de
cuivre et d'argent; le bout de la poignee
de fer rond en forme d'oeuf.
212.
Une autre paire de pistolets, de 24 pouces,
le canon rond sur le devant, a huit pams
sur le derriere, tout uny, le roiiet de
mesme, monte sur un bois de noyer tout
simple, avec un crochet pour porter a
coste.
214. Une autre paire de pistolets a roiiet, de
19 pouces, le canon rond cisele d'escaille,
au bout sur la poignee desquels est
escrit: Sola Jovis jaculator dextera fulmen.
215. Une autre paire de pistolets a roiiet, de
23 pouces, le canon a huit pams, tout uny,
le roiiet de mesme, montee sur un bois
rouge, tout uny, le pommeau de bois
noircy a huit pams.
216. Une autre paire de pistolets a roiiet, de
23 pouces, le canon a huit pams tout uny,
le roiiet de mesme, montee sur un bois
rouge; le bout de la poignee entoure d'un
cercle de cuivre dore.
London. Wallace Collection, 842.
Berlin. Zeughaus, A D 9178.
London. Victoria & Albert Museum, M 5 2-1949
(one of the pair).
Pauilhac Collection, Paris (one of the pair).
London. Victoria & Albert Museum, M7-1947.
(one of the pair)
London. Tower, XII: 1077.
(one of the pair)
217. Une paire de pistolets de Frangois pre-
mier, de 26 pouces 1/2, le canon rond
sur le devant qui est enrichy d'un orne-
me de branches et fueuilles d'argent de
London. Tower, XII: 731.
(one of the pair)
175
Flintlock
Im>. No.
rapport, tortille a l'entour, a huit pams
sur le derriere, aussy enrichy d'un autre
ornement et de plusieurs F couronnees;
la platine de mesme.
220. Un pistolet a roiiet, de 22 pouces, le
milieu du devant du canon rond tout
uny en couleur d'eau, le bout et le
derriere a huit pams gravez en taille
d'espargne, dorez et enrichis de quelques
petits ornemens d' argent, de tables d'acier
taillees en forme de diamans, le roiiet de
mesme; monte sur un bois rouge enrichy
de petits ornemens d'argent et cuivre
dore.
Present Location
Collection W. K. Neal, Warminster.
221. Un pistolet a roiiet, de 2 pieds, le canon
a huit pams, dore par les deux bouts,
blanc et uny par le milieu, la platine unie,
sur laquelle il y a une F et un P, monte
sur un bois noircy, orne presque comme
le precedent.
226. Un autre pistolet a roiiet, de 25 pouces,
le canon a huit pams, couleau d'eau,
grave d'un double fillet; le roiiet tout
uny, monte sur un bois rouge tout
parseme de petits fillets de cuivre et de
petittes fueiiilles d'estain.
227. Un autre pistolet a roiiet, fort riche, de
25 pouces 1/2, le canon couleur d'eau,
tout couvert d'ornemens d'or et d'argent
de rapport tres riches, parmy lesquels il
y a une devise d'un soleil dont les rayons
frappent sur un escu d'un trophee d'armes
avec ce mot: Ex reverberatione splendi-
dior; le fust de fer tout couvert de mesmes
ornemens.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee. Previously Ruffin
Collection.
Berlin. Zeughaus.
Pauilhac Collection, Paris.
237. Un autre pistolet, aussy a deux canons
et deux roiiets, tout pareil au precedent,
excepte que les canons sont dorez et
qu'il n'a que 18 pouces de long.
238. Un autre pistolet a deux canons, de 25
pouces, les canons ronds et separez sur
le devant, unis et a huit pams inegaux
176
London. Victoria & Albert Museum, M 13-1923.
The number cannot be found on the pistol but
the description corresponds exactly.
Pauilhac Collection, Paris.
Appendices
Inv. No.
sur le derriere, dorez en couleur d'eau;
les rouets unis, montez sur un bois de
poirier orne de quelques fillets de cuivre
et de nacre de perle.
257. Un autre pistolet a roiiet, de 24 pouces,
le canon rond sur le devant, a huit pams
sur le derriere, sur lequel est escrit en
lettres d'or: a Vitre, par Marin Mazue
1612.
258. Un autre pistolet a roiiet, de 26 pouces,
le canon a huit pams, tout unis; sur la
culasse est grave une H; le roiiet tout
uny sur un bois rouge; le pommeau orne
de petittes bandes d'argent.
259. Un autre pistolet a roiiet, de 25 pouces,
tout de fer, le canon a huit pams sur le
devant, partie blanc et partie dore, et le
derriere tout cisele d'or et d'argent de
rapport ; le fust de mesme.
279. Une masse d'armes dans laquelle il y a un
pistolet dont le manche est d'argent
vermeil dore, ciselee de plusieurs orne-
mens en entre autres de plusieurs testes
de Meduze, d'argent blanc, longue de
22 pouces.
286. Une espee dont la garde est ornee d'une
medaille d'Henry IV, le pommeau d'une
teste d'aigle, la lame acconpagnee d'un
pistolet a fuzil, longue de 3 pieds 3 pouces.
317. Une autre rondache de fer en forme
presque ovalle, gravee d'une grande
figure niie tenant un baston de com-
mandant avec une draperie sur les es-
paules, doublee de satin rouge, picquee
par carreaux.
357. Un choc . . . D Jumeau.
365. Un mousquet . . . Dijon.
367. Un mousqueton pour porter au cote.
45 2. Une armure ou chemise de mailles de fer.
Present location
London. Tower, XII: 1075.
Andre Collection, Paris.
Collection W. K. Neal, Warminster.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, K 5 8.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, J 362.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, I 5 5 .
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 102.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 36.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, M 395.
Paris. Musee de l'Armee, H 45 5 .
177
Flintlock
APPENDIX 2.
Erik Dahlberg's contract with Desgranges
of Paris. Original in the University Library,
Uppsala (U. 147).
Je Soubsigne Confesse d'avoir fait Marche
avec Mons: Dahlbergh Gentilhomme Suedois
d'un par des Pistolets que je luy dois fake a
raison de Cens livres tournois dont le Pistolets
doivent estre fait de ma propre main et des
Conditions Suivantes.
1. les Canons doivent estre Cannales au
petits pans, bien nett pollies de hors et le
dedans, aveque un petit guidon d' Argent
au bout.
2. les Platines bien limes et rondez a la
mode, les Batteries Cannalees, les Chiens
Canalles avec un petit ruoleau de devant
et de derriere, avec encor un rouleau
double qui desend au millieu du Chien
facon de relief, pas trop petit, guarni de
fleuron. le Qou du Chien bien eleue et
gravee. il y aura a. l'autour du Platines
une gravure. les Platines doivent estre
gravee des figures et des autres Orne-
ments selon le Desseing que Mons:
Dahlbergh en donnera, le quel ne sera
plus charge que les autres que M: de
Granges desia a montre.
3. les Culottes doivent estre Cannales et
Graves autour avec une ovale que sera
mis a derriere, et le Culottes bien gravees.
4. les Porte vices en Serpent avec des
rouleaus en relief, bien limee.
5. les Chiffres seront mis dans une petite
ovale au deriere de la Culasse d' Argent.
6. les Sauvegardes bien limees, graves, et la
destente avec quelque trous de Vidange
bien Gravees.
7. les Ports de Baguette bien limees et
tournees.
8. les Bois montees d'un bois noyen bien
marbre et beau de Grenoble de plus beauz
que se trouvera.
Au reste Mons : de Granges promett de faire
tout bien et nett et tellement que Mons:
Dahlberg sera bien Contant. Et les livrer bien
finj et achevee le dernier jour de Mois d'Aoust
prochain. sur quoy M: de Granges a receu
aujourdhuy Quarante Cinq livres tournois
pour les airs, le reste sera paye en livrant les
pistolets.
Fait a Paris le 29 de Juillet Ao: 1668.
0<ty*nj*i
178
Index
Aachen, 5 5
Abbeville, 17
Adolphus Frederick, King of Sweden, 116
Aerts, Jan, gunsmith, Maastricht, 5 5
Afterkugel, 73
Agriconius, Samuel Mansson (Akerhielm), 94-5
Akero, Sweden, 75, PL ji
Albrecht, Jean Hennere, gunsmith, Braunfels, 58, PL }}
Aldegrever, gunsmith, 139
Alegre, gunsmith, Paris, 112
Algiers, 4, 21
Aim, J., quoted, 2, 5, 159
Alsa, Piero (Pietro Alzano?), gunsmith, Brescia, 59
Amsterdam, 33, 104, 149, PL 82
City Museum, 22
Rijksmuseum, 22, 49, 82, 88, in, 138, 149, PL 1, 30,
122
Angelucci, A., 2, 11, 165
'Angone', 20
Anna, The Infanta, see Louis XIII
Ansy-la-France, Chateau d', 128
Antwerp, 22
Arabesques, 132, 148
Arnhem, Kasteel Doorwerth, 123, PL 10 j
Ashdown, C. H., 159
Atkin, Richard, gunsmith, London, 1 1
Auber, gunsmith, Geneva, 131
Aubert de la Chesnaye-Desbois, 159
Aubigny, various places so named, 126
Augsburg, 56, 58, 138, PL 32, a, 34
Council of, 12
Augustus the Strong (King of Poland), 105, 150, 157,
PL ,4, 8}
Aumon, gunsmith, Paris, 33
Autun, 17
Avom, gunsmith, 1 5 6
Azelius, Mr N. E., photographer, xi
Baltic firearms, 4, 5
Baltimore, Md., Walters Art Gallery, 59, 175
Baner, G. S., 95
Baner, S. S., collector, 94, 95, PL 66
Barbert de Jouy, H., 165
Barcelona, Museo-armeria, 164
Barents Sea, 5
Barne, Harman, gunsmith, London, 90, 91, PL 64
Baroque style, 63, 63, 69, 75, 79, 82, 128, 130, 13J, 138,
i39> J 4«-}i T 54
Barrel sections, see under Chambers
Barroy (Baroie, Barrois), see Le Barrois
Basel (Basle, Bale), 5 8
Bavarian National Museum, see Munich
Bayard, Chevalier, 11
Behr, J. J., gunsmith, 112
Bella, see Delia Bella
Bellefort, 17
Belocq, F., painter, 129
Benezit, E., quoted, 129, 160
Bengtsson, Mr Sophus, photographer, xi
Beradier, gunsmith, Lyons, 48, 131
Berain, Claude, gunsmith, Paris, 79
179
Flintlock
Berain, Jean, gunsmith, Paris, 79
Berain, Jean, designer, 74, 79, 81, 83, 84, 88, 89, 98, 109,
119, 139, 140, 141-2, 144, 147, 151, if], PI. 117-8
Berain, Paris, 81, 87, 96, 142, PL ;<?
Bergerac, A., 48, 131, 157, PL 23
Berkel, River, 5 5
Berkhey, J. le Francq van, 6
Berlin, Arsenal Museum (Zeughaus), viii, xi, 23, 31, 37,
46, 47. 49> 54. 56, 57, 59> 6 3> 6 9» 74, 88, 105, no,
127, 131, 157, 164, 168, 174, 176, PL 17, 27, 32, 8j
Ilgner Collection, PL j2
Museum fur Deutsche Gesichte, see Zeughaus above
Staatliche Kunstbibliothek, xi, 2, 48, 122, 126, 129,
i35» 147. M8, 151, 153. i54, 157. I( >4, PL 22, 2),
101, 107, 109, in, 119, 121, 123-4, 126, 131, I}2-}
Berliner, R., 160
Beroaldo Bianchini, de, 6, 160
Berthault, gunmaker, Paris, 132
Berty, A., 160
Biblioteca Magliabecciana, Florence, 46
Bidal, Pierre, 69
Bielke armoury, Sturefors, 95, 137
Bielke, Nils, 137, PL 114
Ove, 1611-1674, 88, PL 62
Binder, M. J., quoted, 105, 164
Blair, C, xii
Blamont (near Luneville), 17
Bletterie, gunsmith, Paris, 113, PL 90
Blom, O., 160
Bliicher, Marshal, 60
Bock construction, 5 1
Boeheim, Wendelin, quoted, 10, 16, 80, 96, 104, 105,
in, 121, 122, 125, 126, 139, 143, 147, 160, 166
Boel, Painter, 59
Boneau, M., 95
Bone inlay, 122, 123, 124, PL 106
Bonfadini, V., 160
Bongard(e), Armand (Herman), gunsmith and engraver,
Dusseldorf, 105
Bonnet, Father (Bouvay), 17
Bookbindings, 114
Borstell, Colonel, 96
Borstoffer, Hieronymus, woodworker, Munich, 75, 123
Bosch, Hieronymus, 147
Bottet, M., quoted, 117, 118, 160
Bouchot, H., 165
Bouillet, lockmaker, Paris, 115, PL 96
Boule, ebony worker, 129
Bourbon-Conde family, 23, 29
Bourdiec, gunsmith, Paris, 114
Boular, gunsmith, Angers, 98
Bourgeoys (Bourgois), see Le Bourgeoys
Boutet, Nicolas, gunsmith, Paris, 117, 118, 154, 158,
PL 100
Bouvet, see Bonnet
Boyer, King's painter, 80
Brahe-Bielke armoury, see Skokloster
Brahe, Count Magnus, 1 1 3
Brass embellishment, no-n
Braunfels, 58
Breech-loading pistols, 90
Brescia, 59, PL }j
Brett, Edward E., collector, 5 5
Brevets, various, 160
Brice, Germain, quoted, 96, 160
Brifaud, gunsmith, Paris, 116, PL 9J
Brisville, Hugues, designer, 142
Brive, 32
Brussels, Bibliotheque Royale, 149, 164
Musee Ancien, 59
Musee de la Porte de Hal, 18, 20, 22, 54, 67, 114,
115-6, 118, 154, 156, 158, 169, PI. 92, 9J, 100
Buch, Mr U., collector, 78
Budde-Lund, G, 6, 160
Burgundy, 122
Bussemacher, Johan, publisher, Cologne, 128
Butt forms, 33, 45, 46, 47, 48, 50, 56, 62, 65, 67, 73, 74,
75, 80, 84-5, 87, 99, 101, 103, 105, 109, no, ii2,
113, 114, 116, 117, 118, 125, 127, 131, 141-2, 143,
J 47, H8, 156, PL 4), 48, 68
Calais, 94
Callot, designer, 141, 143
Casimir, King of Poland, 17
Casin, gunsmith, Paris, 80, 8i, 83, 85, 90, 157. PL J4
Caskets and similar objects made by stockmakers, 123,
125, PL 106
Cassel, PL 33
Lowenburg Museum, viii, 33, 43, 45, 46, 47, 49, 55,
75, 80, 82, 84, 90, 99, ioo, 104, 131, PL 21, 2j, 29,
/'. J4
Catherine I, Empress of Russia, 77
Cazes, gunsmith, Paris, 115
Cederstrom, Baron Rudolf, 2, 3, 16, 43, 95, 160, 165, 166
Cellini, Benvenuto, 12, 47
Ceule, Jan, gunsmith, Utrecht, 75
Chamber and barrel forms and decoration, 47, 70, 76,
77, 8 5, g 8, 97, 100, 101, 102, no, 112, 114, 117,
141-2, 143, iV. 40, 41,47
Champion, gunsmith, Paris, 96, 100, 143, 144
Chantilly, 29
Charles I, King of England, 1 1 , 90
Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, 79
Charles V, Emperor, 122
Charles VI, Emperor, 1 5 o
Charles XI (of Sweden), 22, 65, 68, 75, 87, 89, 95, 96, 99,
104, PL tf, i9 , j9, 63, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 7 j
Charles XII (of Sweden), 22, 151
Charles Augustas, King of Sweden, 43, 63, 68, 69, 74,
83, 138, PL 16, 20,37, 49, 14
Charles, Landgrave of Hessen, 105
Chasteau, gunsmith, Paris, 102, in, 116, 150, 157,
PI- 79, 97
Cheek-pad, n 6-7
180
Index
Cherbourg, 3, 17
Chereau, F., publisher, Paris, 1 5 2
China, Emperor of, 17
Chiselled ornamentation, 65, 69, 81, 82, 84, 98, no, 138
Choderlot, gunsmith, Paris, 49, 50, 80, 81, 157, PL 2j
Christensen, G., quoted, 1 1 1
Christian V, King of Denmark, 76, PL 13
Christian VI, 1 1 1
Civil War, English, 89
Claes collection, Antwerp, 22
Classical style of decoration, 64-5, 122, 124, 131, 132,
138, 142, 143, 146-7, 149, 157
Claudelin, B., 165
Cleuter, Leonard, gunsmith, Maastricht, 69, PI. j 3
Coburg, 4
Cock, shape and decoration of, as an aid to dating, 43,
5°. 53. 54, 56, 58, 59. 6z > 6 5, 66 > 6 7> 7°. 7 6 , 77. 79.
82, 87, 97, 99, 100, 101, 102, 109, no, in, 112,
115, 117, 118, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 131, 132,
137, 138, 141, 144, 146, 147, PL 103 and passim
Colas, Ezechias, gunsmith, Sedan, 54, 56, 62, 69, 81,
131, 157, -W- -27
Colbert, Minister of France, 146
Collaert, Adriaen, embellisher, 125
Cologne, 128
Cominazzo, Lazaro Lazarino, barrelmaker, Brescia, 59,
63, 89, PL )j, 63
Commonwealth, English, 89
Conde, Prince, 29
Copenhagen, 4, 78, 104
Buch Collection. PL j}
National Museum, 21, 23, 124, PL 2, 10 r
Rosenburg, 31, 47, 88, 95, 98, PL ji, ;}
Tojhus Museum, 4, 5 , 7, 20, 27, 49, 5 o, 5 1 , 5 5 , 5 6, 5 7,
58, 61, 62, 65, 67, 68, 76, 77, 80, 81, 82, 83, 85-8,
9°, 95. 97. 9 8 . 99- 101 . IOZ > I0 4, i°5. no. «i, II2 >
139. x 43. 150, 151, 157. 164, PL 2, 2}, 26, 30, 33,
56, 39, 4°> J 2 , Jh J<>, J7, 62, 64, 69, 79, 80, 82, 88
Cordier, see Daubigny
Cosson, C. A. de, 165
Coster, Cornells, gunsmith, Utrecht, 49, 50, 55, 88, 132,
PL 30
Counter-cocking bent, 38
Courtrai, Battle of, 1646, 67
Coyzevox, sculptor, 150
Croizier, gunsmith, Paris, 115, PL 94
Cronstrom, Daniel, Danish minister in Paris, 151
Crossbow, connection with early firearms, 3 5
Cunet, Claude, gunsmith, Lyons, 48, 49, 50, 62, 131,
144, PL 26
Cuny et Lahitte, gunsmiths, Paris, 95, 97, 98, 99, PL 67
Cuny, gunsmith, Paris, 99; see also Cuny et Lahitte
Cupboards, ebony, 137
Dahlberg, Eric, 94, 95, 97, 99, 160, 178, PL 66
Damascus work, 114, 127, 142
Damour, Gille, gunsmith, 1 1 1
Darcel, A., 163
Darmstadt, 7, 62, 102, 112, PL 36, 86, 90
Dating by form and style, 121
Daubigny, Isaac Cordier, gunsmith, Fontenay, Paris,
126, 157
Daubigny, Jean Cordier, 126
Daubigny, Philippe Cordier, Engraver, 18, 32, 42, 45,
51, 123, 125-6, 217, 131, 139, 149, 156, PL 14, 108
d'Aubusson, Vicomte Louis, 112
David, Arnold, gunmaker, Liege, 55, 69, 83, PL 29
De Bruyn, Abraham, designer, 128
De Bry, Theodor, designer, 125, 128
De Clos, F., gunsmith, 157
Decoration — borrowing from other crafts, 125, 14 5 n
of firearms, 121-33, I 35~45> 146—5 5
De Crens, gunsmith, Paris, 113, PL 89
De Foullois, gunsmith, Paris, 80, 83
De Foullois, Jr., gunsmith, Paris, 87, 93, 96, 98, 99, 144,
147, PL 61, 6 j, 70, 72
De Goulet, Jaques, gunsmith, Vitry, 156
Delabarre, designer, 129
De Lacollombe, engraver, Paris, 109, no, 112, 113, 114,
151, 153, 158, PL 127, 128, 129
De la Feuillade, due de, see d'Aubusson
De la Feuille, Daniel, engraver, Amsterdam, 104, 148,
149
De la Gardie, Jacob, 21, 36, 46, PL 7
De la Haye, gunsmith, Maastricht, 77, PL 13
De la Pierre (La Pierre), gunsmith, Maastricht, 55, 76,
77, 83, 88, PL 29, / 3
Delaune, Etienne, embellisher, 139, 143
Delia Bella, Stephano, engraver, 149
De Lucia quoted, 61
De Marteau, engraver, Paris, 115, 153, 154, PL 130, 131
Demmin, A., 160
Demrath, gunsmith, Berlin, 105
De Narcy, gunsmith, Paris, 80
De Neuf Maisons, gunsmiths, Paris, 80-1
Denmark, manufactured in, 105
Deptford, 21, 23
De Rochetaille, Alexandre, gunsmith, Paris, 149
De Sellier, see Selier
Desforets, gunsmith, Paris, 48, 75
Des Granges, Gunsmith, Paris, 81, 94-7, 98, 99, 144,
178, PL 66
Design sheets, early, including parts of firearms among
other objects, 122
Des Trois Maisons, gunsmiths, Paris, 81
De Verre, Pierre, gunsmith, Paris, 95, 97, 98, 99, 106,
PL 67
Devie, gunsmith, Paris, 43, 44, 47, 75, 85, 131, 157, PL
21
Diderot et d'Alembert, encyclopaedists, 5, 10, 81, 160
Dijon, 17
Dillon, H. A., 160
Dinckels (Deinckels), Kaspar, locksmith, Utrecht, 56,
131
181
Flintlock
Dino, due de, 42
Directoire, 117
Doepfer (Topfer),- Samuel, barrel- and locksmith,
Strasbourg, 68
'Dog-locks', 21, 23, 58, 89, 94, 95, PI. 4
Doorwerth, Kasteel, Arnhem, 123, PL 10 /
Double-barrelled gun, origin of modern form, 116
Doucin, Ch., gunsmith, Paris, 1 10
Drakenhjelm (-ielm), (Cameral Board), 68, 94, 95
Dresden, Arms manufacture in, 4
Army Museum, xiii, 20, 105, 151, PI. 8;
Arsenalmuseum, 7, 164
Gewehrgalerie, 19, 20, 48, 102, no, 112, 113, 117,
148, 150, 164, PL j, 24, )4, 80, 81, 87, 89, 90, 92, 99
Historisches Museum, vin, x, 19, 31, 43, 56, 57, 58,
75, 81, 83, 84, 95, 90, 103, no, H2, 113, 114, 125,
131, 142, 154, 164, PL 6, 21, J4, 99
Kunstgewehrbibliothek, 1 5 2
Kupferstichkabinet, PL 99
Dubois, Jean, gunsmith, Paris, also Sedan, 54, 82, 88,
93, PL 28, 6 j
Ducerceau, Jaques Androuet, designer, 122, PL 101
Duclos, Francois, gunsmith, Paris, 42, 45, 129, 130, PL
17, 19
Du Metz de Rosnay, 16
Dunes, Battle of the, 1658, 67, 70
Dunkirk, Batde of, 1646, 67
Duquesnoy, Francois, carver, 139
Durant, Jean-Louis, engraver, 154
Durie, gunsmith, Paris, 81
Dutrevil, gunsmith, Paris, 113, PA 87
Ebony, 75
Ehrental, M.v., 19, in, 164
Ekberg, Mr Olaf, photographer, xi
Elizabeth, Empress of Russia, 1 5 1
Embroidery, flowers on. 128
Emden, Rustkammer, 164
Zeughaus, 69
Empire styles, 116, 117, 118, 154, 157
Enander, T. A., quoted, 1, 160
England, flintlock manufacture in, 53, 89-90, 105, 118
influence of on French firearms, 118
Epinal, 3, 17, 123
Erfurt, 117
Erhardt, Jakob, gunsmith, Basel, 58
Erith, 21, 23
Erttel (Ortel) Andreas, gunsmith, Dresden, 105, 150,
PL 8 j
'E.S.', 124
Eskilstuna, 58
Estruch collection, 27
Ettersburg Castle, 66-7, 112, 166, PL 4/, 91
Evelyn, John, diarist, 5 9
Falise, J., 164
Fama as motif for decoration, 66, 135, 149, 153
Feldhaus, F. M., 160
Festing, F-M Sir Francis, 132
Feuquiers, Marquis de, 96
ffoulkes, C. J. quoted, 11, 18, 164, 165
Fiereus-Gevaart, 164
Fife, Lord, 32
Fillon, M. B., quoted, 30, 160
Fischer, Galerie, Lucerne, 112
Fleetwood, G. W., 161
Fleming, H. F., quoted, 19, 161
Flindt, Paul, embellisher, 127
Flintlocks, detailed description, 27-8, Pis passim
distinction from snaphaunce, 27 ff
origins of, 1-13, 18, 27 ff, 41 ff
Flock (Floche), Jan, gunsmith, Utrecht, 56, PL 30
Floris, Cornells, designer, 124
Fluted barrels, 97
Flying birds, shooting on wing, 19
Fontainebleau, 122, 124, 127
Fontenay, 17
Formentin, P., gunsmith, 83
Fortitude as motif for decoration, 1 3 5
Foulc collection, 1 5 3
Foulois, see De Foullois
Fouquet, Minister of France, 79, 146
Francese, Gio, locksmith, Brescia, 59, 89, PL jj, 6}
Francino, Gio: Battista, gunsmith, Brescia, 59
Francis I, 17
Franklin, A., 161
Frappier, gunsmith, Paris, 100, PL yj
Frederick I, King of Sweden, 104
Frederick I, King of Prussia, 105
Frederick I, King of Saxony, 117
Frederick Augustus I, PL 99
Frederick III of Denmark, 74, 98
Frederick IV, 77, 98, 1 1 1
Frenel, gunsmith, Paris, 81
Froomen, Peter, gunsmith, Maastricht and Stockholm,
88
Funck, David, publisher, Nuremburg, 105, 149, 150
Fusil, 1, 2, 17, 61
Gaibi, A., xii
Galle, gunsmith, Paris, 8 1
Gamber, O., 132
Gamillschag, Ernst, 2, 161
Gardner, J. S., 165
Garret, gunsmith, Paris, 81
Gauchet, Claude, poet, 19
Gautier (Gaultier), gunsmith, Paris, 81, 100
Gay, V., quoted, 17, 161
Gelderland, 55
Gelli, J., 161
George, J. N., 21, 89-90, 161
Germany, types of arms and manufacture in, 53, 56, 57,
58, 59, 105, 118, 122, 127
Gessler, E. A., quoted, 57, 58, 161, 166
182
Index
Gessler, Georg, barrelmaker, Dresden, 16, 19
Gilbin, Gunsmith, Paris, 80-2, 90
Gillot, Claude, engraver, Paris, 150-3, PL 12 /, 126
Gobelins, les, 146
Gobert, T., quoted, 54, 161
Gothic style, 124
Gourinal, Gabriel, gunsmith, Sedan, 54, 75, PL 2j
Goussainville, Marquis de, 86, 98, PL ;8 (Nicolas
Nicolay)
Grancsay, Stephen V., 16-18, 59, 161, 165
Gravelines, Battle of, 1644, 67
Gravet, goldsmith, 96
Greener, W. W., gunsmith, author and retailer, London,
Hull and Birmingham, 6, 161
Greenwich, 21, 23
Grenoble, 17, 99
Grose, F., 6, 161
Grosz, A., 166
Gruche, gunsmith, Paris, 102, 144, 150, PL jj
Guerard, Nicolas, designer and engraver, Paris, 109,
no, 112, 118, 151, 152,/*/. 12}, 124
Guiffrey, Jules, 16, 161
Guilmard, D., 109, 122, 129, ,135, 139, 143, 149, 153, 161
Gustavus Adolphus, King, 21
Gustavus III, King, 116, PL 97
Gyllenstierna family, 94, 95, 98, 99, PL 66
Habert, J., gunsmith, Nancy, 156
Hague, The, 104
Halbonas, 105
Half-cock action, 27-8
Hamburg, Kunstgewerde Museum, 32, 123, 115, PL 103
Hayward, J. F., 23, 59, 132
Hedouyns, designer, 129
Hedvig Eleonora, Queen, 99
Hellberg, K, 161
Henequin (Henequy), Jean, gunsmith and engraver,
Metz, 32, 33, 34, 37, 43, 47, 53, 122, 123, 124, 125,
126, 136, 156, PL 102, 103, 104
Henrik, 21
Henri II, King of France, 17, 122, 124
Henri IV, 30, 37, 125, 128, 129
Henry VTII, King, 21, 23
Hercules as motif for decoration, 64, 66, 70, 139
Hermitage Museum, see Leningrad
Herouard, J., 17, 161
Hertslet, diplomatic and consular reports quoted, 54
Hewitt, J., quoted, 1, n, 161
Hewse, R., gunsmith, Wooton Bassett, 90, PL 64
Hirth, quoted, 154
HoLzhausen, W., 161
Hoopes, Thomas Th., 3, 122, 161
Horn inlay, 122, 123, 124, 138
Hotel Lambert, 146
Hozier, L. P. d', 161
'H. P.', 129
Huard, Georges, quoted, 29-30, 129, 161
Hubert, St., as motif in decoration, 62
Hugenots, 97, 104
Hunting scenes as motif for decoration, 137-8
Hymans, H., 164
Ilgner collection, 76
llgner, Major Emil, 75, 77, 162, 164
Intarsia, 128
Iollain, Gerard, engraver, 149
Italy, flintlock manufacture in, 53, 57, 59, 105, 118, 124,
144
Ivory stocks, 75, 76, 78, 80, 82, 83, 97, 131, PL j2
Jacquard, Anthoine, designer, 122-3, I2 5
Jacquinet, G, engraver, Paris, 73, 74, 83, 85, 135, 143,
147
Jahns, M., 162
Jahnson, Jean, 5 5
Jakobsen collection, 66, 112, 166
Jakobsen, T. T., 162, 166
Janot, apprentice to Berard (?), 143
Janssen, Hendrik, designer, 124
Jessen, P., 124, 151, 162
John George II, Elector, PL 34
Jordaens, painter, 59
Joyeuse, due de, 30
Jumeau, D., gunsmith, Paris, 31, 43, 156
Jung, J. H., gunsmith, Sulli (Suhl?), 112
Justice as motif in decoration, 1 3 1
Kabyle firearms, 5, 7, 27
Kalling, Count C. N., 95
Kammerer, Martin, gunsmith, Augsburg, 56-7, PL 32
Kassel, see Cassel
Keller collection, 79
Kessen, A., 75, 162
Kilian, Lucas, designer, 138
Kitzen, Jan, gunsmith, Maastricht, 55, 68, PL 29
Klapsia, 121
Klett, Jean Paul, gunsmith, Salzburg, 1 3 1
Knoop, Jan, gunsmith, Utrecht, 49, 50, 56, 82, 84, 88,
90, 97, PL 30, 61
Kock, J. A., gunsmith, Mainz, 118, 154
Kosters, Jacob, gunsmith, Mastricht, 68, 76, PL j2
Krammer, Gabriel, designer, 128, 129, PL 107
Kranichstein Castle, 62, 65, 102, 164
Jagd Museum in, 102, no, 112, PL 36, 86, 90
Kristina, Queen, 28, 43, 64, 68, PL 31
Kiinzelsau am Kocher, 71
La Cousture, gunsmith, Paris, 81
Laes, A., 164
Lagatz, gunsmith, Danzig, 83
'La Guere', 123, PL 103
Laking, G. F., 33, 123, 165, 166
Laligan, gunsmith, Paris, 81
183
Flintlock
Lallemand, gunsmith, Paris, 79, 81
La Marre, gunsmith, Paris, 8 1
La Marre, gunsmith, Vienna, 77, 81
Lamm collection, 75, 116
Landesmuseum, Swiss, 58
Langlois, N., publisher, Paris, 142, 143
Langon (Laon), Pierre, gunsmith, Paris, 43, 44, 45, 46,
47. 75, PI- 21
Languedoc, see Le Languedoc
Lanse, Vinsenso, Brescia, 89
Laon, P., gunsmith, Paris see Langon
La Pierre, see De la Pierre
La Roche, Jean-Baptiste, gunsmith, Paris, 113, 114
Launnoy, 17
Lauts, J., 162
Law, John, 1 1 3
Le Barrois (Barroy, Baroie), 79, 80, 131, PL J4
Le Blon (Le Blond), Michel, designer, 124, 139, PL 107
Le Bourgeoys, Jean, Lisieux, 128, PL 9, ij
Le Bourgeoys, Marin, Lisieux, viii, 29-30, 31, 34, 36, 37,
41, 42, 46, 47, 63, 74, 82, 125, 127 128, 129, 130,
141, 156, Frontispiece, PL 8, 11, 12
Le Bourgignon, gunsmith, Paris, 81, 131
Le Brun, Charles, artist, 93, 146, 150, 151
Le Clerc, Jean, gunsmith, Paris, 116
Le Clerc, Nicolas, barrelmaker, Paris, 115, 116
Le Conardel, engraver, St. L6, 153, PL 126
Le Conte, gunsmith, Paris, 81, 87, 96, 141, PL jp
Le Couvreux, Francis, gunsmith, Paris, 81, 83, 86, 96,
98, 100, 101, 142, PL j8
Le Couvreux, Jean, 81
Lee, Captain Thomas, 20, 21, PL 2
Lefebvre, designer, 129
Le Francq van Berkhey, J., 162
Le Hollandois, designer, 73, 74, 79 ff, 102, 112, PL 81,
89 (see also Thuraine et Le Hollandois)
Le Hollandois jr., 113
Le Languedoc, Laurent, gunsmith, Paris, 100, 101, 103,
104, 109, 112, 113, 114, 147, 148, 151, 153, 157, PL
j 8, 81, 89, 90
Leningrad, Hermitage Museum, 29, 30, 32, 34-7, 45, 82,
127, 130, 164, 172, PL 8
Lenk, Dr Torsten, vii-ix, 23 n, 92, 162, 165
Lens, Battle of, 1648, 67
Lenz, E., 29
Le Page, gunmaker, 115, 117, 154, PL 99
Le Pierre, gunmaker, Masstricht, 132
Le Sage, gunmaker, Paris, 116, PL 99
Lesconne, A., 79, 82, 90, PL J4
Les La Roche, gunsmiths, Paris, 114, 115, PL 92, 9)
Les le Page, gunsmiths, Paris, 116, PL 9;
Lespinasse, R. L. de, 162
Les Rundberg, 1 1 5, PL 94 (see also Rundberg)
Les Thuraine, gunsmiths, Paris, 80, 98, 99, 157
Liander, R., 162
Liege, 54, "8, PL 29
Musee Curtius, 68
Musee d'Armes, 67, 102, 112, 164, PL 89
Lisieux, 17, 29, 30, 34, 36, 127, 128, 129, PL 8, 9, 10, 12,
Littre, E., quoted, 1, 162
Livrustkammare, see Stockholm
Lobate leaves, 101, 103, 109
Loffelholtz Manuscript, 1505, 2
London, 21
Gunmakers' Company, 90
Lorraine, Duke Charles Leopold of, 105
Lotz, A., 162, 164
Louis Xm, King, ix, 16, 17, 29, 31, 32, 37, 38, 42, 129,
130, PL 9, 11, 1 y, 104
architectural and decorative style, 138, 140, 142, 147
marriage to Infanta Anna, 19
his work as gunmaker, 1 29
Louis XIV, King, 16, 17, 42, 46, 66, 67, 70, 85, 87, 96,
98, 99, 100, 102, 104, 105, 113, 118, 137, 144, 146,
149, 150, PI- jo, 61, 70, 77, j 2, j}, 114
marriage to Maria Theresa, 67
style in guns, 93-108, 133, 154
Louis XV, King, 1 1 3
style, 154
Louis XVI, King, 116
style, 116, 154
Louis, Dauphin (d.1765), 115-6
Louis Philippe Joseph (Philippe Egalite), 1 1 5
Louis, Prince (d.1761), 115
Louroux, Johan, gunsmith, Maastricht, 68, 75, 76, 77,
82, 85, iV. j2
Louvre, see Paris
Lovstad, 114, 115, 116
Lowenburg Museum, see Cassel
'Lucas', engraver, Paris, 154, PL i}i
Lucerne, 112
Lucia, G. de, 166
Ludar, Hans, gunsmith, Goslar, 12
Lund University Library, 1 5 9
Luneville, 3, 17, 124
Lyons, 49-50, PL 46
Maastricht, 54, 55, 69, 75, 77, 82, 88, 104, PL 29, 72, jj
armorial bearings of, 68
Madrid, Real Armeria, 3, 57, 122, 165
Mainz, 1 5 3
Malmborg, G., 162, 165
Malta, 48, 75, 165
Manyeu, Libourne, 87
Marcou, Francois, gunsmith, Paris, 44, 47, 63, 69, 71,
74, 81-4, 131, 135-9, x 43, 147, J 49> x 57, PI- m,
112, 11 j
Portrait, 137
Marcuate, Simon, gunsmith, Madrid, 12
Maria Theresa of Spain, 67
Mariette, I., publisher, 142
Marly, 146
184
Index
Marno, Gio., (Giovanni Mariano?), stockmaker,
Brescia, 59
Marolles, Magne de, 2, 6, 18, 19, 31, 113, 115, 117, 162
Marolles, Michel de, 1 29
Mars as motif for decoration, 137, 141
Martin, goldsmith, Angers, 100, PL 74
Mascon, gunsmith, Paris, 81
Massevaux, Alsace, 123
Masson, Alexandre, gunsmith, Paris, 81, 96, 98, 99, 100,
PL 70, 73
Masson, Jean, gunsmith, Paris, 81
Masue (Mazue), Marin, gunsmith, Vitre, 31, 33
Matchlock, x, 6, 11, 42, 127, PL 10 j
Maucher, Johann Michael, woodworker, Schwabisch
Gmund, 58, 75
Maximilian, Emperor, 12
Mayer, gunsmith, Lyons, 48, 81, 131, PL 2}
Mayer, gunsmith, Paris, 81
Mazarin, Cardinal, 146
Mazelier, gunsmith, Paris, 112
Mazue, Marin, gunsmith, Vitre, 1 5 6
Medici, Lorenzo, 46
Medici, Maria de, 19
Mediterranean lock, 16, 18, 19, 20, 37
Metal inlays, 124, 127
Metropolitan Museum of Art, see New York
Metz, 3, 17, 53, 54, 56, 75, 123, PL 28
Meunier, Abraham, gunsmith, Geneva, 5 1 , 69 , 1 3 1 , PL 2 6
Meurthe River, 124
Mews, K., 162
Meyrick, S. R., quoted, 6, 18, 162
Michel, A., quoted, 138, 163
Micol, J. M., 163
Minerva as motif in decoration, 66, 135, 136, 141, 143, 151
'M.N.' see under Nutten
Monlong, gunsmith, Angers, 81, 83, 84, 87, 157, PL 61
Montaigu, gunsmith, Metz, 53, 56, 69, 75, PL 28
Montmirail, 17
Montpensier, Duke of, 29
Moresque decoration, 128
Morietz (Moritz), Heinrich, gunsmith, Cassel, 5 7, PL )j,
10 j
Morner, Count, 105
Moscow, 165
Armoury, 59, 75, 77, m, PL 3 j
Kremlin, 151
Moselle River, 123
Mother of pearl inlay, 124, 127-8
Motifs for decoration, various, 139
Munich, Bayerisches National Museum, 32, 33, 46, 47,
102, 124-5, i3 6 » J 44» 150. 156, PL 77, 104
Muntinck, Adriaen, designer, 127
Musee de l'Armee, see Paris
Museums, details of, viii-xi.
Note: Museums generally, except those in England,
are indexed under the town or city in which they
are situated.
Musket butts, 3 3
Nagler, G. C, quoted, 151, 163
Nancy, 3, 17, 113
Nantes, Revocation of Edict of, 104
Nanty, gunsmith, Paris, 81
Napoleon, Emperor, 117, 154, PL 99
Narke Province, Sweden, 66
Nasby, near Stockholm, 75, 116
Naseby, Battle of, 90
Naudin, gunsmith, Paris, 81
Neal, W. Keith, collection, Warminster, 90, 174-7
Neo-Classic style, 114, 116, 158
Netherlands, flintlock manufacture and styles in, 53, 56,
57. 69, 78, 80, 82, 88, 90, 194, 118, 131
lock, 18, 20, 22, 26, 34-5
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, xi, 3, 16, 22,
42, 102, 117, 122, 130, 157, 165, PL if, 100
Nicolay, Nicolas, see Goussainville,
Nordic (Nordisk, etc.), defined, 132 n
inspiration, 124
Nordisk, see Nordic
Norrkoping factory, 1
Norwich, 21
Nuremburg, 4, 6, 57, 104, 105, 124, 127
Nulten, Mateis, gunsmith, Aachen, 55, 124, 126, 137,
PL 1 oi, 10 j
Olivet, M., 95
Orbyhus, 58
Orion, Chateau d', 128
Orleans, Dukes of, 115
Orpheus as motif in decoration, 62, 127
Ortman, Johan, gunsmith, Essen, PL ji
Orttel, see Erttel
Oslo, Artillery Museum, 58, 88, 165, PL jj
Ossbar, C. A., quoted, 20, 26, 61, 165
Ostergotland Province, Sweden, 114, 137
Ostraat, 88
Ottman, Johan, gunmaker, Essen, 75
Oudry, Jean-Baptiste, retailer and designer, 151
Oxenstierna, Count C. G. (Sodermore), 100
Count Gustav, 95
Oxford, 4, 165
Paindevle, Paul, gunsmith, Vitre, 156
Palatine period, 99
Pan (god) as motif for decoration, 130
Parket, W., gunsmith, London, 90, PL 64
Paris, 17, 18, 38, 100, 117, 118, 125
Andre collection, 170, 177
Archives du Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres, 159
Archives Nationales, 159
Arsenal, 60, 151
Bibliotheque Nationale (Cabinet des Estampes), 34,
35. "4-3. i*9> I 3 1 . '39. M 2 . M4. PL 102, ioj,
185
Flintlock
Hotel des Invalides, 150
Institut de France, 1 26
Louvre, 19, 30, 31,42, i°*> "5-6, ' 2 3> '5°, "7, 165,
PL 92, 96
Musee de Cluny, 123, 169, PL 106
Musee de l'Armee, x, 3, 4, 16, 18, 11, 27, 28, 29, 31,
34-7, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 57, 65, 74,
78,81,83,84-6,98, 103,111,122, 125, 127,128-30,
156-7, 165, 167-74, 176-7, PL 7, //, 12, 16, 17, ;8,
81
Musee des Arts Decoratifs, 1 5 1-2, PL 126
Pauilhac collection, 18, 27, 33, 53, 69, 87, 98, 99, 102,
127, 128, 144, 156, 167-7, i7°> 174-6, i°/. 3, 28, 108
Sommeson collection, 1 69
Palatinate, 101
Partiette, publisher, Paris, 138
Pasold collection, Langley, 106
Pattern books, 12 1-2
Paulsson, G., 163
'P. Baroie', 79
Peiresc, N. C. F. de, 163
Pelka, O., 163
Perrier, dealer in engravings, Strasbourg, 154, PL 132,
Peter the Great, Czar, 77
Petrini, Antonio, gunsmith, Florence, 46-7
Petronel, 23
Philip IV, King, 18-9
Philippe Egalite, 1 1 5
Picquot, Thomas, engraver, Paris, 42, 43, 44, 74, 75, 127,
129, 130-1, PL 109, no
Pieron, Nicolas, barrelmaker, Paris, 113, 114
Piraube, Bertrand, gunsmith, Paris, 96, 99-105, no, 144,
147, 1 50, 1 5 1, 157, PL 71, 73, 74, 7 j, 76, 80, <?/, 86
Pirmet, gunsmith, Paris, 117
Pistols, 73 ff
breech-loading, 90
Pitt-Rivers collection, Oxford, 4, 165
Plon, Eugene, 46-7, 163
Polain, A., 163
Poland, 105
Pollard, H. B. C, quoted, 12, 83, 163
Pommels on pistols, 48, 50, 67, 73 ff, 102, no, 113, 130,
*3*
Post, P., 121, 127, 163, 164
Potier, Antoinette, 81
O., 164
Poumerol, Francois, gunsmith and writer, Paris, 2, 23,
28,41, 163
Prebes, gunsmith, Paris, 81
Preuot, Jean, gunsmith, Metz, 53, 132, PL 28
Pseudo-Classical style, 140
Puiforcat, gunsmith, Paris, 116, PL 9J
Pyrenees, Treaty of the, 1659, 70
Quaritch, Bernhard, publisher, London, 143
Quatrains au Roy, Poumerol, 28-9
Raab, Heinrich, engraver, Nurnburg, 104, 149
Rademacher, Reinhold, gunsmith, Eskilstuna, 5 8
Reguet, gunsmith, Vitre (?), 48, 131, PL 2}
Ramrods and pipes, 47-50, 53, 55, 56, 76, 77, 84-6, 93,
97, 99, I0I > io 3, I0 9> "°> "*> "3, »4.-«7. *4i,
143
R.A. Museum, Woolwich, viii
Rawicz, Polish family, 113
Regence style, 114, 154
Reiber, E., 159
Relief decoration, 69-70, 84
Rembrandt (The Night Watch), 22
Renaissance style, 124, 139, 143
Rene, David, gunsmith, Heidelberg, 89, 144. PL 62
Renier, H., gunsmith. 78
Renwick collection, Ravenswick, Mass., 21, 22-3, 31,
32, 24-6, 41, 45, 55, 128, 171, 174, PL 4, 7
Restoration style (French), 118
Remborg, Zacharias, 96
Reubell, member of Directoire, 117
Revolution, French, 118
Revolver, 49
Rewer (?), Valentin, gunsmith, Dresden, 105
Reynier, Adriaen, (Le Hollandois ?), 80
Richelieu, Cardinal, 17, 18
Rijksmuseum, see under Amsterdam
Roannes, due de, 112
Robert-Dumesnil, A.P.F. quoted, 129, 130, 163
Robert, L., quoted, 78, 86, 164
Robin, Jean — garden in Paris, 128
Rococo style, 114-6
Rocroi, Battle of, 1643, 67
Romdahl, A., 163
Rosenborg, Copenhagen, 31, 74, 77
Rotkirch, Wenzel, 74
Rouen, 3, 17
Roux, Claude, gunsmith, Lyons, 49, PL 26
Rouyer, E., 163
Royal Library, Sweden, 94
Rudolph, G, 163
Rundberg, Peter and Gustav, gunsmiths, Jonkoping and
Paris, 115, 77. 9J
Rupert, Prince, 90
Russia, Dutch artisans in, 22, 77
Sabylund, 66
Sack Armoury, see under Stockholm
Saddle holsters, 82
Sadeler, Daniel, gunsmith, 75
St. Brieuc, 3, 17
Saint Etienne, 17, 116
St George as motif for decoration, 68
St Germain, Paris, 18, 112, 158, PL 91
St Malo, 1 7
St Mihiel, 79
St Petersburg, see Leningrad
St Remy, S. de, 163
[86
Index
Salzburg, Carolino- Augustan Museum, 131
Samson as motif for decoration, 70
San Donato collection, 123
Saxony, 150
Electorate of, 105
Grand Dukes of, 66
Schedelmann, H., 132
Schenk, Pieter, engraver, Amsterdam, 104, 148-9, PL
122
Schertiger, Jonas, Stockholm, 62, 68
Schestag, F., 166
Schmidt, Rodolphe, quoted, 83, 163
Schon, J., quoted, 7, 18, 20, 27, 83, 163
'Schoten', 128, 130
Schroder, G., 163
Schroderstjerna, P., 163
Schwabisch Gmund, 58, 75
Schwarzburg Arsenal (Zeughaus), 20, 61, 67-8, 70, 81,
83, 84, 87, 157, 165, PL 6, 4;, 61
'SchweiP, 127, 128, 130, 131, 141, 142
Scipio Africanus, referred to in inscription, 67
Sedan, 17, 36, 54, 56, 61, 62, 68, 69, 70, 75, PI. 27, 28
Selier, Philippe, gunsmith, ill, 153
Semper, Gottfried, quoted, 102, 121, 163
Servais, Louis, gunsmith, Orleans, m, 153
Siam, 17
Sideplates, 50, 55, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 109,
no, H2, 113, 124, 125, 126, 131, 141, 147, 150, 151,
PL 68
Sights, 47, 65, 66, 80, 84, 97, 99, 101, 102, 112, 114, 117
Sigmaringen, 10
Signatures, 156-8, TV. 154
Silver decoration, 124, 125, 138, 142, 151, iY. 107
Simonin, Claude, engraver, Paris, 100-02, 104, 113, 147-
50, IJ3, I57, PL 119, 120, j 21
Simonin, Jacques, engraver, Paris, 101, 147, 148, PL 121
Simonin, Jean, gunsmith, Luneville, 33, 156
Simonin veuve, 147-8
Skokloster, Sweden, xi, 18, 19, 22
Brahe-Bielke Armoury, 88, 90, 95, 102, 113, PL 64, 67
Wrangel Armoury, 48, 49, 53-7, 61-9, 74-7, 81, 82,
88-90, 93, 95, 97, 102, 113, 138, 144, 157 PL 24,
26, 28, 29, )0, p, 36, )8, 4), 44, ;i, ;2, 62, 64, 6 j,
67
Skottorp, Sweden, 90
Smith, Otto, quoted, 61, 163, 164
Snaphaunce lock, x, 1-10, 12, 17, 18-20, 23, 26, 28, 34-7,
44,56-7»58,89,i35
detailed description, 26-7
Solatin, Cesare, Excellen^a della Caccia, 19
Soler, Isodoro, author, Madrid, 163
Sommer, Johan Eberhard, 67, 71, PL 4/
Sotheby's Sale Rooms, 67, 166, 170
Southwark, 21
Spain, 176
gun styles in, 118
Sparfvenfeldt, J. G, 22
Spens family, 21, 23
Starbus (Stahrbus), Pieter, gunsmith, Amsterdam,
Stockholm, 49, 104, PL 82
State Archives, Sweden, see Stockholm
Stockel, Captain J. F., quoted, 30, 59, 163
Stockholm, 96, 100, 104
Hallwyll Museum, 68, 76, 102, 116, 157, 165, PL J 2, 9;
Livrustkammare, xi, 4, 16, 21, 23, 36, 43,-8 54-9,
6i-7°, 74, 75, 79> 80-85, 87, 89, 90, 93, 95, 96, 98-
101, 104, 105, no, 1 1 3-6, 123, 124, 126, 131, 137-9,
141, 143, 144, 147, 151, 154, 156, 157, J 59> l6 5» PI-
1, 4, 16, 20, 27, )i y }}, )4, )j, )7, 38, 39, 44, 47, 49,
J4, J9, 6}, 6 j, 66, 70, 71, 72, 7), 74, 7J, 78, 82, 94,
97, 99, 108, iij, 117, 118, 119, 120, 127, 128, 129,
I}0, 1)1
National Museum, 142, 143, 149, 154
Nordisk Museum, xi, 145
Public Records, 159
Royal Palace Library, 94, 96, 1 5 9, PL 12;
Sack Armoury, 58-9, 83, 93
State Archives, 94
War Archives, 159
Stocklein, Hans, designer and author, 75, 121, 126,
163
Stocks, iron, 78
Stocksund, Jacobs Collection, 118, PL 100
Stradanus, engraver, 19
Strasbourg, 68, PL 1)2, i)}
Sturefors, 97, 98, 99, 137, 159, PL 66
Suhl, 57, 59
Sweden, flintlock manufacture in, 58-9, 61, 105,
118
Swedish Board of Trade, 5 8
Public Record Office, 119
Royal Palace Armoury, 5 1
Switzerland, flintlock manufacture in, 5 3
Sword decorations, PL 49
Tavernier, engraver, 138
Temple, Rue du and Marais du, Paris, 94
The Art Bulletin quoted, 59
Thiebaud, J., 163
Thieme, U. (and others) quoted, 109, 151, 159, 163
Thierbach, M., quoted, 7, 10, 83, 163
Thiermay, Daniel, gunsmith, in, 153, PL 88
Thirty Years' War, 54
Thobie, gunsmith, Paris, 49, 50, 84, 131, PL 2j
Thomas, B., 121, 132, 163, 166
Thomas, Claude, gunsmith, Epinal, 24
Thomas, P., gunsmith, Paris, 42, 44, 45, 46, 55, 62, 66,
I3 1 , !37, 157, -W- 20
Thuraine (Thurenne), gunsmith, Paris, 73, 74, 79 ff, 95,
98, 99, 157, PL 69 See also Les Thuraines; Thuraine
et le Hollandois
Thuraine et le Hollandois, gunsmiths, Paris, 79-91, 93,
9 6 > 97, 99, "!» I 3 I . '39, J 4*> H3, J 44, '47, '5°.
157, PL j 6, J7, 1 1 j, 116
187
Flintlock
Titeux, Jean, barrelmaker, Paris, 116
Tomas, see Thomas
Topfer, see Doepfer
Tornier, Jean Conrad, woodworker, Masevaux, Alsace,
123, 131, 132,
Tour d'Auvergne family, 36
Tournai, 126
Tower of London, viii, x, 4, 11, 18, 31, 32, 37, 44, 46,
48, 74. 159. l6 4-5. i7!> 174-5. 177. PI- IJ
Tribel, Valentine, gunsmith, 58, PL }}
(Triebel)
Tr igg er -g u ards, 49, 50, 54, 55, 63, 65, 66, 67, 70, 76-82,
85. 93. I0 3. I0 9. *«• "4~7> Iz6 > I2 7> 13°. pl - 43
Trolle, Corfitz, collector, 95, 98, no, PL 69
Tromp, Admiral Martin, 49, 50, 56, 82, 88, PI. 30
Tula, 151
Tulle, 32
Turenne, 17, 32, 36, 131
Marshal, 32
Turin, Royal Armoury, 2, 59, 165
Turk-heads in decoration, 77
Ulaborg, 95, PL 66
Uppland, Province of, 66
Uppsala University Library, 94, 159
Urquhart, Mr G. A. translator, ix
Utrecht, 49, 55, 56, 75, 88, 89, PL 30, 62
Utrecht, Union of, 54
Valencia de Don Juan, V. de, 165
Valetta, 165
Vallet, Pierre, 'brodeur ordinaire du Roy', 128
Valois, Philip, 17
Van den Sande, gunsmith, Zutphen, 55, 75, 131, PL 30
Vanitas, painting, 5 9
Van Lochum, publisher, Paris, 42
Van Merlen, designer, Paris, 126
Vaux le Vicomte, 146
Velasquez, 18
Vendee, 126
Venice, 126, 166, PL 40
Armoury, 61-3, 65
Sala d'armi, 138, 139
Versailles, 117, 118, 146
Salon de la Guerre, 150
Veste Coberg, 77
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, viii, 32, 34, 37,
46, 57. 59. 6 7> 9°. l6 7, 171, 175. 176
Vienna, Kunstgewebermuseum, 122, 129, 150, 166, PL
101, 108
Kunsthistorisches Museum, 10, 57, 63, 64, 65, 79, 102,
105, 112, 138, 144, 150, 166, PL 32, 37, 39, 77
Museum fur angewandte Kunst, 126, 149, 166
Nationalmuseum, 144
Vinci, Leonardo da, 3
Vitre, 3, 17, 31, 33
Vivier de Sedan, gunsmith, 68
Volutes, 86, 103, 109, no, 125
Von Baden, Landgrave, L. W., 112
Von Blumen family, 43
Von Essen, Barron Carl and Baroness, xi, 66
Count G. A. F. V., 66
Von Hohenfeldt family, in
Von Konigsmarck, O. W., collector, 96
Von Lenz, E., 104
Von Sandrart, Jakob, engraver, Niirnberg, 104, 149, PL
122
Vredeman de Vries, Hans, designer, 1 24
Vrilliere, Phelipeau la, 32
Wallace Collection, London, xi, 31, 70, 79, 123, 128, 169,
175, PI- *h I0 J
Walter's Art Gallery, Baltimore, Md., 175
Warminster, 174-7
Warsaw, Polish Army Museum, viii, 59, 167
Waterloo, Battle of, 38
Watteau, Antoine, artist, 1 5 1
Wechter, Georg, designer, 12
Weigel, Johann Christoph, designer, Nurnberg, 118,
1 5 1-2
Weigert, R. A., quoted, 139, 142. 163
Wellington, Duke of, 60
'Wender' construction, 49-51, 53-56, 58, 59, 69, 70, 73,
79, 81-4, 87, 89, 90, 96, 117, 141, 144, 154, 157. PI
2 J, 26, 29, 30, jj, J9, 99
Wennberg, Erik, quoted, 94
Werder, Felix, lockmaker, Zurich, 5 7, 1 3 1 , PL 32
Westphalia, Peace of, 54
Weyersberg, A., 164
Wheel lock, x, 6, 17, 33, 57, 58,67, 82, 121-5, 127, 135,
156, 157, PL 102, 10 j
Whitelaw, C. E., quoted, n, 20, 164
Wijk collection, 66, 82, 85, PL 44
Wille, J. G., 164
Williams, Sir Roger, quoted, 33
Windsor Castle, xi, 2 1 , 32, 36,48,82, 102, 104, 105, 114,
115, 125, 131, 149, 150, 158, 166, PL 4, 14,7/, So, 92
Wistow Hall, Leicestershire, 90, 91
Wolff, Johan Ch., stockmaker, Stockholm, 88
Woods employed in gunmaking, 99
Woolwich Rotunda, 11, 18, 31, 38, 56, 57, 81, in, 166,
PL 1 j
Wrangel Armoury, see Skokloster
Wrangel, Charles Gustavus, of Skokloster, 63, 138
Wiirzburg, 75
Wynant, Lewis, xii
Yser River, 5 5
Zella, 59
Zurich, 57, 58, 166, PL 32
Schweizerisches Landmuseum, PL 32
Zutphen, 55, 75, PL 30
188
History/Weapons
$19.95 (CAN $25.95)
"This great work is doubtless the most important and most splendidly produced
single work in the literature of arms and armor." -J.F. Hayward
A groundbreaking treatise based on fifteen
years of research, this classic is the essential
book on the subject of flintlocks. From his post as
Director of the Swedish Armoury, Torsten Lenk
traveled throughout Europe inspecting thousands
of firearms in private collections, enabling him to
detail the construction, evolution, and decoration
of the flintlock from the period of its origin, the
seventeenth century. Included are an illustrated
section on definitions, terminology, and types of
locks; descriptions of the flintlock's precursors,
the "Mediterranean lock" and the Netherlands
snaphance; a thorough discussion of French flint-
locks; a comparison of the Thuraine and Le Hol-
landois style, the Classical Louis XIV style, and the
Berain style; and three comprehensive chapters on
pattern books and decorations. With hundreds
of photographs and illustrations, this reference is
without equal for collectors, dealers, or owners— or
for anyone with an interest in weapons and their
history.
TORSTEN LENK. worked at the Swedish Royal Armoury for over thirty years, serving as
Director for a large portion of his career.
Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
555 Eighth Avenue, Suite 903
New York, NY 10018
www.skyhorsepublishing.com
Cover design by Adam Bozarth
Printed in Canada
m m
I
■
ISBN-10: 1-60239-012-6
ISBN-13: 978-1-60239-012-6
51995
9 781602"390126
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